The UK’s biggest tourist attractions are paying out millions of pounds in compensation claims each year after a sharp rise in the number of people seeking payouts for trips and slips whilst visiting the venues.

According to an article in the Daily Mail, the increasing compensation claims include a number of unusual or bizarre cases. For instance, at English Heritage site Carlisle Castle, a woman successfully claimed fifteen thousand pounds for injuries sustained to her pelvis and hip when she slipped into the moat whilst trespassing on the property in the middle of the night. English Heritage also paid her legal costs, totalling more than thirty seven thousand pounds.

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum paid out more than twenty thousand pounds compensation, plus thirty thousand legal costs, when a woman fell over whilst using a revolving door, as well as offering hundreds of pounds to a man who burnt his thumb on hot soup whilst serving himself from the attraction’s restaurant.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper published an overall table of the compensation claims launched against 24 top attractions throughout the UK, estimating that the organisations have been forced to pay out over two million pounds between them over the past five years.

Other examples of compensation claims continued to affect English Heritage, which has paid out over £150,000 in total during the time period concerned. This included twenty one thousand pounds for a visitor that broke their hip after slipping at Eltham Palace, plus seven thousand pounds to someone who hurt their back after being hit by a bucket at Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight.

The Tate Modern has also paid out more than £25,000 in compensation claims over five years, including to two people who were injured whilst using slides that formed part of an exhibit by Carsten Holler at the museum.