Met up with the new girl on the patch for this one, (nice to meet you Lily! thanks for the company and for not doing this one without me!), After visiting another site in the area, (Brockland's adventure park - pretty much cleared now, kit has been auctioned off, half of the site is now industrial, and the other half returned to being the owners personal space), we headed out to the back up site, on a bit of an adventure park quest we made our way to Killarney Springs family park, also in the same area.
The parks website is still online at the time I write this report and can be found here -
http://www.killarneysprings.com/attractions.htm
It is sad to see so many of these tourist sites go under, in such a short time and so close together, you'd have thought that the closure of one would have strengthened the other,
Brockland's closed as the owners retired, but as to the closure of this site I don't really know the cause, although doing some research I did manage to find this on the HSE site -
http://www.hse.gov.uk/notices/notices/Notice_details.asp?SF=CN&SV=300173168
There were rumours going around about planning permission and lack of funds, but then rumours do spread once these things happen...
OK, on with some pics, there are loads I'm afraid as it was a huge site, with a lot of the area and buildings being cleared, a lot being sold off at auction, also signs of some landscaping being started, but we were glad to see plenty reminders still remaining...
This area was known as the 'Fun barn', play room for the under 6's, used to be filled with bouncy castles, ball pits and toys...
View from the 'Killarney Castle'
Then on into what used to be 'The Powerhouse', (Twin twister, drop slides)
Snack bar, & pool table (all now gone)
The next area, last time I went was a food outlet and indoor eating area, with a few arcade machines, and toilets, this now seemed to have been turned into an indoor dodgems area,
These made me laugh, CROOZ controls...
Random trashed leftovers...
After climbing up the stairs to the top of the waterslides...yes, we were tempted...
Heading down towards the 'Willow creek boat ride'
Apart from a big hill this was just about all that remained of the 'North ridge toboggan run', I remember these steps, they were a killer, especially when you end up carrying to kids toboggans too!
The boat house at the creek..
And on down to where the funfair used to sit, nothing left but bits and pieces rotting in the field, was supprisingly wet underfoot, not one of the best places to situate a rollercoaster...on marshland?
Was a long walk but this bench didn't look that inviting...
Classic Swingball...
Not quite sure what the idea of these were, think they were used to sit behind a small metal swing-shovel as they were in what was left of the sandpit.
The gift shop, now emptied, and various other structures.
This was another restaurant..
And finally to the boating lake...
Plans for the future use of the property can be found here -
http://www.landmarque.co.uk/killarney_springs.htm
It seems no-one has bought the land yet as for sale signs can still be seen at the entrance, although planning permission has been obtained to build the above...
Thankyou for checking this out, and thanks again to Lily,
I still think you should have done the post!
Lycos.
