Reopening of adventure park but some big rides remain off-limits

A popular Highland adventure park reopened yesterday after a short temporary closure due to the Scottish Government’s ban on “fairground rides”.

Visitors will again be able to enjoy a range of activities at the Landmark Forest Adventure Park in Carrbridge.

Some of the big rides – such as the popular watercoaster and timber train attractions – will, however, remain offlimits.

The Scottish Government decision to ban “fairground-style rides” was announced earlier this week and came just a week after the park’s operators were told they could reopen following the Covid-19 lockdown.

It has affected a number of businesses, such as Codona’s Amusement Park in Aberdeen.

Bosses at Landmark said on Monday the decision had given them “no option” but to shut earlier this week for a further temporary period.

The big rides had a large ability to “process” visitors, but with those out of action the park lost some of its capacity.

It took two days to reassess the number of visitors able to walk through the gates. The period enabled staff to accelerate the reopening of five high-level and low-level rope-challenge attractions which need specialised mitigation measures to enable them to operate.

Landmark has also now been given permission to open Ant City.

“The park is now open, but the Wild Water Coaster and Runaway Timber Train are now closed as the Scottish Government has now banned all ‘fairground rides’,” a spokesman said.

“We sincerely believe we have managed the risk to acceptable levels of safety for staff and visitors.”

Yesterday, Landmark reopened the RopeworX high challenge course, the Tarzan Trail challenge course, the Wee Monkey challenge trail, the Pinnacle Climbing Wall, Skydive parachute jump simulator and the Ant City play area.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We understand the difficulties businesses face, but it is imperative we continue to suppress the spread of the virus, in order to maintain the progress we have made to date.”

He added: “We are therefore asking all local authorities to recommend that operators ensure fairground-type rides are closed, regardless of their location.”