Feedback Stories

Escape Room, funded in part by the HASSRA Business Unit Grant

In mid-November our People Group gathered for a face-to-face meeting in Glasgow, so we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to make use of the HASSRA Business Unit Grant.

This grant is available to teams that are dispersed geographically and are wanting to organise a team building activity, in order to encourage engagement and wellbeing.

We decided we would attempt an escape room! For those of you who aren’t aware, an Escape Room is a puzzle room, where a team of people are locked into a room and have to solve a variety of puzzles inside in order to escape.

We visited Riddle Rooms in Glasgow and our team "Scottish Fingers" (don’t ask!) were set the task of completing the haunted Mansion Room! The 9 of us had 90 minutes to solve the largest puzzle room and in order to escape, we had to work out what had happened to the four ghosts now destined to haunt the mansion. We had to determine their names, their job, how they had been killed and why they had been killed. We began by working in smaller teams to try and solve initial puzzles that would then combine. We had help from 3 members of staff in the room, who could give us clues or let us know if we were heading in the right direction, which was incredibly useful – some of us would have fallen at the first puzzle were it not for their help!  Various clues around the room led to other clues and the discovery of keys or combination padlock numbers that would open other areas or items within the room and so on and so forth. Various newspaper clippings and handwritten letters we found revealed the truth behind what had happened in Riddles Mansion, including murder, a stolen inheritance and a scandalous affair!

In the end it took us 76 minutes and 43 seconds to solve all of the puzzles and escape from the Mansion Room. We had an absolutely amazing time and wholeheartedly recommend utilising the HASSRA Business Unit Grant to organise wonderful and exciting team building opportunities like this for your geographically dispersed teams!

For more information about the HASSRA Business Unit Grant click HERE!