In the run-up to Halloween, you may be looking for activities and places to visit to get you into the spirit of the season.

You needn’t look far, as right on your doorstep is perhaps one of the most prolific spooky spots in the country - Dunster Castle.

Over the years, there have been several instances of ghosts being reported in the castle, and the National Trust, which owns the castle, is even hosting ‘ghost tours’ of the building this year.

One of the most commonly reported spectres in the castle is ‘The Man in Green’. In the seventeenth century stable block, which is now home to the National Trust’s gift shop, staff members have said that they have seen a man dressed in green walking through the shop before disappearing.

He seems to frequent this area, with his menacing aura causing visitors to ask whether any murders have happened in the room.

Further to this, there have been reports of a “mysterious green light” that bobs across the shop and disappears - and unopened boxes in the shop are sometimes ruined by an unexplained “brown, sticky gunge”.

But The Man In Green is not the only ghost to have been spotted at Dunster Castle.

One cleaner working in the castle said that she came face to face with the ghost of a man in an “old-fashioned military uniform”. The area that she was working in was later discovered to have been a dormitory for Civil War troops - something that she could not have known beforehand.

In the Blue Kitchen, a volunteer working for the National Trust reported that a disembodied human foot appeared out of nowhere, and several people have claimed to have heard disembodied voices and footsteps when there was nobody else around.

And while not a traditional ghost, the Gatehouse has its share of the eerie too.

In a dungeon below the Gatehouse, the skeleton of a seven-foot-tall man chained to the wall by his wrists and ankles was found, along with several other skeletons.

No ghost has been reported here - but dogs refuse to go near the area and shy away from the steps near where the bodies were found.

The Trust explains: “Dunster Castle is full of ghosts and those that work at this ancient Norman fortress report many strange experiences.

“These range from peculiar sensations, inexplicable events and sightings of ghostly figures, to other, sinister sensations that sometimes seem only perceptible to dogs.”

Dunster Castle dates back to the 11th century, after the Norman conquest of England, when Earl of Somerset William de Mohun constructed the early castle.

The castle was then fortified in the 12th century and survived a siege, and by the 1300s had been sold to the Luttrell family, who would eventually hold the title of Earl of Carhampton.

Going under siege again in the Civil War of the 1640s, the medieval castle walls were mostly destroyed, but were later repaired by the family.

In the 1970s, then-owner Colonel Walter Luttrell, a World War II veteran, gave the property to the National Trust.

But with the paranormal presences spotted at the castle, it could be that there is a lot more to Dunster Castle.