BATMAN checked into Clitheroe's hilltop castle accompanied by enough bats to make a blood-curdling horror movie.

But there will be no night-time flying round the castle walls, for the hero is a life sized model, and his stuffed companions in the glass cases died of natural causes some time ago.

The fascinating exhibition looking at British and foreign bats runs until September 11.

It explores their place in superstitions, myths and folklore and in literature, art and popular culture.

There are specimens and pictures of all kinds of bats , from the greater horseshoe bat to the enormous fruit bat, the leaping vampire bat, the fisherman bat with huge clawed hind feet, the South American tent building bat, and the Mexican spear-nosed bat - vital to the production of Tequila.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.