Before we get onto the history and photos check out this video of me climbing the abandoned Knightmare roller coaster:

History

Camelot Theme Park is now abandoned. The theme park first opened its doors in 1983 and has operated seasonally ever since. The park is based on the story of Camelot, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. In 1986 the park was taken over by the Granada Group which operated it along side the sister parks The American Adventure (Closed in 2007) and Granada Studios (Closed 1999). In 1995 attendance was hovering around 500,000 visitors per year and 3 years later in 1998 Prime Resorts Ltd arranged a management buyout of the park. Attendance then took a swift downturn with only 336,204 visitors recorded in 2005.

February 2009 saw the park go into receivership along with an announcement that it would not be reopening for the 2009 season. In April 2009 the Story Group a construction company based out of Carlisle announced that they would be purchasing the park which would then be leased to the Knights Leisure Group which meant that the park did reopen in May 2009. The park continued to operate until the end of the end of the 2012 season when it closed its gates for the last time.

The site’s future remains uncertain as the new owner is planning to redevelop the site. Current indications are that this will be a housing development.

The closure of the park was announced by its operator, Knights Leisure, in November 2012, the managing director blaming poor summer weather and events such as London 2012 and the Queen’s Jubilee for declining visitor numbers.

Our Visit

Visited with Sam ‘The Mule’, Travis, Leigh, Travis, Chard Remains and Dystopia, As you can see we got an early start and a few night shots of the coaster before we had a mooch around the rest of the park :). Definitely one of my favourite explores to date. I’ve always wanted to see an abandoned theme park and this one wasn’t a disappointment. Electricity was on in some parts, we didn’t test the rides but I assume they will have been disconnected. One of the roller coasters, the yellow one has already been removed. Known ad the Whirlwind the ride is now relocated to Skyline Park in Germany. Thankfully the Knightmare remained so that I was able climb up and get a few high photographs of the park.

The Knightmare Roller Coaster Ride

Knightmare is a Schwarzkopf/Zierer custom roller-coaster situated at Camelot Theme Park in the UK. It was originally built in Kobe, Japan in a theme park called ‘Portopialand’ (Now Defunct) under the name ‘BMRX’/’Bavarian Mountain Railroad’ and was mainly indoors with a huge mountain structure created around the ride. After the park closed, the rollercoaster was dismantled and shipped over to the UK, arriving in late 2006. In early 2007 construction began at Camelot, with the ride opening to the public in the Summer of 2007 as Knightmare. Originally the ride had featured five different coloured trains. When relaunched at Camelot the park chose to refurbish three of the trains. Some of the steam train theme was removed such as the funnel and headlights from the front of the train. The three trains were painted differently with one being partly maroon, one partly purple and the other partly green. It cost £3 million to build, takes you through sharp turns, multiple helix’s and a near vertical bend (commonly known as “the psycho drop”) halfway through the ride where you experience approximately 5G, reaching speeds of about 40 mph.

The trains are big enough to fit 14 people, taking them up a semi-spiral lift up to 80 ft tall and then dropping them into an over-banked curve, the ride has a height restriction of 1.3 metres. It is located in the ‘Land of the Brave’ area of Camelot, situated on the site of the former looping roller coaster The Gauntlet and The Tower of Terror prior to this. Knightmare is a unique roller-coaster

On with the Photos:

Now for the rest of the Park:

Finally a map of the Park from 2011:

I might add some more video clips later when I get around to looking at the rest of the trip 🙂

Check out the new photos from the revisit: Camelot Theme Park, Chorley, Lancashire, United Kingdom – February 2014

Is Camelot Theme Park still open?

I have a lot of traffic coming to the site from people searching to find out, is Camelot theme park still open? Sadly not, the Park closed at the end of the 2012 season.

Can I visit Camelot Theme Park?

Not as far as I am aware, there are security on site who will notify police if trespassers are fond on the premises.

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading / checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂

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