Shepton Mallet Prison

Visited last night, we drove down from Leeds!

The ghost tour is fascinating, we all loved hearing the stories and the history of the place and we’d recommend this place to anyone in the area

A few suggestions:

- I know you’re on a tight time schedule but we feel like we were a little rushed, we couldn’t properly look at the cells or any of the courtyard. I just feel like we missed such a huge part of the prison.

- It would be really nice if you had some visual representations that showed the way of the life for the prisoners and what it was like for staff living there etc. You don’t need to have any sound playing but I think that would be really good to really help people feel the presence of the place.

Overall, a solid place to come! Thank you for a great tour 😊

Visited to have a look around I had 2 previous visits before lockdowns it's great to se different parts opened and unfortunately some closed off like the gym I would have loved to have seen that again.
I really enjoyed getting to explore a prison that was recently closed so you get some modern and some historical parts so the best of both.
There is lots of information around the prison and scenes set up so you get more of a feel for how things was here.
You can go on self tour or guided tour by ex prison officers.
I got a annual pass so I can keep coming back.
There is lots of activities like ghost tours, paranormal investigation, escape rooms and music behind bars.
There is lots to see and is really worth a visit for people of all ages although there is lots of steps so could be difficult for some.

Lovely day out at Shepton Mallet last week, we went during the half term so was expecting it to be busy but wasn't that busy at all. We went on a guided tour with a lovely lady can't remember her name but she was very friendly and was very knowledgeable about the prison so we learnt a lot! Another good thing about doing a guided tour was that we got to go around after on our own too so we got to see everything in detail, it's a nice place to explore with lots to see would recommend. Just remember to bring a jumper as it is very cold when going around even on a sunny day!

Excellent 3 hours. Did the Escape room and failed miserably lol. James, our Guard was class, got into character and made sure we all followed orders. Really good fun in the cell trying to get out!! Once out we spent 2 hours soaking up the feeling of what it must have been like as an inmate. Fascinating and fun. All of the staff were very welcoming, friendly and helpful. Would recommend for any age within reason.

Absolutely loved it. Had a brilliant tour guide named Jeremy, he was so knowledgeable that when he asked us if we had any questions, no one had any because he had told us in so much detail. I would definitely advise going for the tour rather than walking around on your own as there is such much history in this place which is really interesting and you will miss it if you don't k ow what you are looking for. A really really good day out

Excellent place to visit with lots to see. No good if you have mobility difficulties as there are a lot of stairs to negotiate. I would recommend doing the self tour and not the guided tour. We were warned that the guided tours take so long that you end up missing a fair bit of the prison. From what we saw, this was a good decision. You get to see all areas of the prison from cells to the hanging room.

We spent a couple of hours looking round, there are some creepy sections in the old part of the prison. I would definitely visit again and go on one of their events. £3 for parking with easy access to the prison, we didn't book in advance and there was plenty of space

The tour guide made a very interesting point. You can visit stately homes all over the country but not many peoples real family history comes from backgrounds like that.

Shepton Mallet prison allows people to explore a different side of history, the not so prim and proper side.

The history is fascinating and it is family friendly but I’d recommend older children age 8 and up really.

Definitely recommend doing the guided tour, you find out a lot about the history from Victorian times to when it closed in 2013.

The people who have it open to the public have to rent it from a company who want to build flats on it. Hopefully that won’t happen, but it relies on people taking an interest.

It looks like they do several other activities there too such as ghost tours and escape rooms. It’s also been used as a film location several times.

It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea but I recommend it as an alternative day out.