Creeping around a disused hospital morgue late at night, armed only with torch, sounds like the plot of a horror movie, and not something that most people would do willingly.

However, the Manx Museum is to open its doors for a series of late-night ’Dark Tours’, which will allow audiences to get to see behind the scenes, and also to learn some of the more grisly tales of Manx history, acted out by the theatre group Labyrinth: History In Action.

The tours, which begin next week, are held in conjunction with an international festival called ’Museums At Night.’ Museums in different countries open their doors after hours in order to encourage more people to take an interest in their local history.

Katie King, community learning officer with Manx National Heritage and also a member of the Labyrinth theatre group, explained that she had been keen to take part in the festival, and that the cast members are looking to bring some of the more unknown stories from the dark recesses of Manx history to life.

’We had this idea about it being about Sophia Morrison and about folklore,’ said Katie.

’But the actors didn’t like it. Labyrinth didn’t really feel like folklore was their ’thing’. So I thought that maybe I should call it ’Dark Tours’ and we’ll see where that goes.

’We decided to look at galleries and objects in the museum and bring those objects to life. We decided only to pick the darkest grizzliest stories and tell them in an entertaining way.

’Although the stories are quite dark, and mostly 17th 18th Century stories, we have injected some humour into them. So you won’t be coming and crying by the end.

’The stories are quite emotive and engaging.’

With all lights off and no natural light being let in at all, the audience members will be taken on a pitch-black, torch lit tour of the museum by Katie, who will tell a few stories of her own, and also provide some of the subtext behind some of the tales they are about to encounter.

’We have 20 of our cast taking part,’ she said. ’We take you round and you will meet our wonderful actors, who have written their own scripts and some wonderful poems especially for the tour.

’We do have a brilliant little bit on Manx folklore, talking about the female vampire, ’Tehi Tegi’, which is a great story.

’In one of the stories we are reading from an actual execution warrant, and in other instances we are imagining what this character might have been saying, but we’ll tell it from a point of view from a friend or a mother.

’In the art gallery, you’ll learn a little bit about smuggling. We also have a Viking story, a war story and a lot of 18 century stories, because a lot of our collection pertains to that time.’

The tour will also delve into the history of the Manx museum building itself, which was once the original Noble’s Hospital.

’I will take you to the morgue, and I will be telling a few hospital stories. We will also be visiting non-public areas and you’ll be able to see some of the bits you never get to see.

’Many people have been to the museum many times, and we have thousands of objects on display, and sometimes it’s really interesting just to hone in on that one object.

One of the objects we are looking at you would overlook it every single time you come, but it has such a fabulous story attached to it. One of our actresses is really bringing the story to life in such a creative way.

’We’re not telling ghost stories, we are telling real-life scary stories, but in a really light-hearted way. So you won’t be too scared. Unless you are scared of the dark.’

The tours take place next week, beginning on Wednesday, May 17, from 7pm and will run through to Saturday evening, with a final tour taking place at 9.30pm. Tickets are £12, and £6 for under 16s.

It is advised that the tours aren’t suitable for under 8s.