Lightwater Valley

Lightwater Valley Family Adventure Park is an adventure park in North Stainley, North Yorkshire, England. The park was once home to the longest roller coaster in the world, The Ultimate.
Lightwater Valley was founded by Robert Staveley in 1969, and the leasehold is now owned and operated by the Mellors Group, having been purchased by them in 2025.
The park attracts approximately 300,000 visitors per year.

Park information

History

In 1969, Lightwater Valley began as a small self-pick fruit farm attraction. The farm was owned by the Staveley family, who had owned the land since 1516. In 1976, the farm was affected by drought, resulting in the excavation of a lake to help reduce the effects of future droughts. The lake's popularity instigated the transition of the farm into a tourist attraction. Early attractions included an adventure playground, canoes, rowing boats and a circus. Later on, Staveley introduced a petting zoo, BMX bikes, Go Karts, a pitch and putt golf course, a hell slide and a water chute. During this time, the park was advertised as a country park and self-pick fruit farm with a pay-one-price and ride-all-day system in place, with the exception of a small number of pay-to-play attractions. A range of different fairground rides were introduced into the entrance areas of the park and the Lightwater Shopping Village was established.
The Lightwater Valley Theme Park was born when the Rat Ride was built in 1987. Robert Staveley wanted to expand on the family market and provide something for the thrill market, whilst still catering for a younger audience. At the time, Robert Staveley's wife was a keen protector of the country park status and did not like the idea of having a roller coaster spoiling this. After much discussion, she permitted the construction of a roller coaster as long as it was out of sight. To accommodate his wife's wishes, Robert decided that he would bury the roller coaster underground and it became based on the dwellings of a sewer rat. The ride closed in 2009 for refurbishment and re-opened as Raptor Attack for the 2010 season. The ride was constructed by blasting large amounts of rock and capping the hole and exposed sides with a large barn style building. The ride attracted much attention, nearly doubling gate figures and paving the way for future developments including the park's first looping coaster, the Soopa Loopa, in 1988 which featured two vertical loops and a backward facing ride car.
Following the success of the Rat Ride, Robert Staveley persuaded his wife that a 'proper' roller coaster be built. He liked the idea of having a roller coaster coming down the valley at the top of the park, but was faced with the challenge of getting people to the top of the valley to board the train. His wife suggested that the train be sent out to the top and then returned with the aid of two drops. In 1990, construction began on what would become the world's longest roller coaster, costing £5.2 million and over in length. The Ultimate was opened to the public in 1991.
Additional rides and attractions were added throughout the decade, including roller coasters such as The Viper, The Batflyer, and The Ladybird. Water rides such as the Beaver Rapids log flume and Splash Falls were opened. A number of rides, including the Beaver Rapids and the Heatwave, were opened on short-term leases instead of being purchased.

Change of ownership

In the mid-1990s, Robert Staveley handed the park over to his children, Amanda and James. However, in 1997, there was a change of ownership from a private family firm to Queensborough Holdings, who bought a 99 year leasehold for £5.2 million. The park was sold because it had run into financial difficulties following the heavy expenditure on The Ultimate.
Queensborough Holdings was also in ownership of the Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park at the time. Both parks were operated by Leisure Great Britain, part of Queensborough Holdings. However, the new owners put the park back up for sale within 11 months of buying it, deciding instead to refocus their business. No bid was accepted during the following few years. Lightwater Valley was given a new lease of life in February 2001 when the park was bought by Ball Investments who used Heritage GB to manage the operations.
The new ownership brought about rapid investment in ride offerings and brand imaging with new logos, mascots, websites and rides such as The Treetop Twister and Black Widow's Web in the first year, followed by rides such as The Octopus, The Eagle's Claw, The Grizzly Bear, The Caterpillar Coaster, Trauma Tower and Skyrider.
Following the unfortunate incidents of 2001, guest figures plummeted from their 1990 averages. Continual improvements to the family offering, brand imaging and marketing have resulted in vast improvements to customer satisfaction and attendance figures. Some of these improvements included: investment in the re-theming of the Sewer Rat to Raptor Attack, the introduction of the first themed 'area', 'Skeleton Cove', with five new rides along with new family friendly attractions such as the Angry Birds Activity Park, Eagles Creek Farm, the Vintage Car Rally and Jurassic mini golf course. Successful events such as the ever-popular annual Frightwater Valley Halloween event, Pirates & Princesses weekend, and UK bungee jump days have attracted record gate figures.
During the late 2000s, talk began of the potential development of Lightwater Resorts. Initial planning permission for holiday caravans and log cabins was rejected by Harrogate Borough Council due to concerns about the impact on traffic and local businesses. The park later re-designed and re-submitted their planning permission for 106 log cabins which was then granted.
In June 2017, the park was sold to attractions operator Livingstone Leisure Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
After Livingstone Leisure Ltd bought the park, the decision was made to close the Lightwater Country Shopping Village at the end of the 2017 season.
The Bird Of Prey Centre was closed at the end of the 2018 season and did not return for 2019.
In 2021 the park announced it would be re-calibrating its attraction offering by focussing on the younger family audience. A number of older thrill rides were retired and new rides suited to younger children introduced. The Ultimate remained closed for the 2020 and 2021 seasons and a decision made to dismantle the ride in 2023.
In June 2021, the park was sold to The Brighton Pier Group for £5 million. Chief executive Anne Ackord states, 'I believe that, together, we can develop Lightwater Valley into the premier amusement destination across Yorkshire and the surrounding areas.'
The park received a major rebrand for the 2022 season, with a new logo, new mascot and name change to 'Lightwater Valley Family Adventure Park'.
Planning permission was granted in January 2024 for the siting of 31 luxury glamping pods in the north eastern woodland area of the park instead of the 106 lodges originally planned.
In October 2025 the park was listed for sale with an asking price of 3,000,000 GBP
In December 2025 the leasehold of the park was sold to the Mellors Group.

Rides and attractions

Lightwater Valley has 39 rides and attractions.

Attractions Key

Fairground

Go Safari

Skeleton Cove

Top Thrills

Lakeside

Eagles Creek

Discovery Woods

Dino-Roar Adventures

Park Mascots

Under Queensborough Holding's ownership, the park had a single mascot, Woody the Bear. In 2001, Ball Investments introduced the Valligators to the park. The Valligators were three green alligator-costumed entertainers who acted as the park's mascots named Harry, Sally and Baby Al. In 2017, Livingstone Leisure replaced the Valligators with two new dinosaur mascots called Jester and Jasmine. From 2022, new owners Brighton Pier Leisure Group introduced Ebor the Dragon and the next season in 2023, Rex the Valleysaurus.

Incidents

On 21 June 2001, 20-year-old Gemma Savage died following an accident the previous day when two carriages collided on Treetop Twister, a spinning Wild Mouse roller coaster, which had opened in May of that year. Police decided not to prosecute a maintenance worker, who claimed that he had only received an hour of training on the ride and had not seen its manual. Faulty wiring had also caused a malfunction on the ride. In October 2004, Deputy Coroner John Sleightholme at Skipton Magistrates' Court ruled death by misadventure.
Lightwater Valley's owners and electrician Eric Butters admitted to breaching health and safety laws at Leeds Crown Court on 14 November 2006. Lightwater Valley Attractions Ltd was charged with failing to ensure the health and safety of riders. Butters was charged with failing to ensure safety through his work. Both pleaded guilty. A French manufacturer, Reverchon Industries SA, was convicted of two charges of failing to ensure the ride's safe design and construction.
In May 2019, a young boy fell 30 ft from the same ride and was left in critical condition. The ride was sold to a UK based showman at the end of the 2019 season. The park was fined £350,000 for health and safety breaches.

Energy efficiency

In 2015, the park reported energy efficiency savings of around £130,000 a year stemming from an investment in renewable technologies. These include new carbon-neutral biomass boilers producing 400 kW per unit, enabling the park to move away from the conventional oil-based heating system. In addition, a new ground-mounted photovoltaic array was installed in the adjacent fields, which has supplied up to 45% of the park's energy demand. Much of the rest of the energy demand for the rides, including The Ultimate, is met by means of diesel generators.

Past attractions

#	Name	Opened	Closed	Brief Description	Replaced by
1	Toad Hole	1985	2006	A semi-enclosed water chute, formerly called 'Devil's Cascade'. Left SBNO after closure.	Lightwater Wheel
2	The Sewer Rat	1987	2009	A Schwarzkopf Wildcat Type roller coaster, also known as 'The Rat Ride'.	Raptor Attack
3	Soopa Loopa	1988	1994	A double looping roller coaster manufactured by Soquet	Falls Of Terror
4	The Wave	1990	2010	A large Zamperla swinging ship located in the woods which closed because of a new pirate ship opening in Skeleton Cove. Sold to Alex Crow.	The Flying Cutlass
5	Grand Prix Go Karts	1991	2010	Traditional go-kart track.	Skeleton Cove
6	The Mexican Hat	1994	2005	An ARM Trabant ride. Originally located at the park entrance area, then moved next to where Flying Camels is now.	The Octopus
7	Viper/Zyklen	1996	2001	A City Jet / Jet 400 type ride manufactured by Schwarzkopf.	Eagle's Claw
8	The Batflyer	1996	2002	A steel suspended roller coaster.	The Caterpillar Coaster
9	The Orbiter	1998	2004	A Schwarzkopf Apollo ride owned by the Bembom Brothers and leased to Lightwater Valley. Chair swing variant. First opened with the name 'Heatwave'.	The Octopus
10	Beaver Rapids	2000	2002	A Reverchon two drop Log Flume ride.	Grizzly Bear
11	Grizzly Bear	2004	2008	A Pinfari Zyklon-type Roller Coaster.	Wild River Rapids Vintage Car Rally
12	The Octopus	2005	2006	A Soriani & Moser Polyp ride owned by John Armitage and leased to Lightwater Valley for two seasons.	Skyrider and Flying Camels
13	Hornets Nest	2007	2009	A 1998 Chance Chaos purchased from Pleasureland Southport. Scrapped.	Whirlwind
14	Whirlwind	2010	2011	A Mondial Top Scan	Eagles Creek Farm
15	Whirlwind	2011	2015	A Mondial Top Scan. Sold to UK based showman Joe William Whitelegg.	Apollo
16	Lightwater Wheel	2008	2016	A Technical Park 82-ft observation wheel. Sold to Alex Crow.	Flying Nellies
17	Buffalo Express	2003	2016	Mini Train Ride	Interactive Playground
18	Flying Camels	2007	2016	Aerial carousel ride featuring camels purchased from Pleasureland Southport. Sold to Alex Crow.	Mini Sand Diggers
19	Black Widow's Web	2001	2017	A Huss Enterprise.	'Thunderdome' Waltzer
20	Twister	2001	2019	A Reverchon spinning wild mouse coaster. Sold to UK based showman Emerson Edwards.	Dodgems
21	Spinning Teacups		2019	Spinning tea cups
22	Mini Ferris Wheel		2019	Mini ferris wheel
23	Raptor Attack	2010	2019	A Schwarzkopf Wildcat roller coaster. First operated as the Sewer Rat from 1987 to 2009 prior to retheme. Sold to COTALAND
24	Apollo	2016	2019	An AK Rides star flyer on loan from Alex Crow	Twist and Turn
25	Wild River Rapids	2009	2020	A Reverchon river rapids ride. Sold back to Mellors Group, and now operates under the same name at Fantasy Island, Ingoldmells.	Dodgems
26	Black Pearl	2011	2020	A Weber Traum Boot
27	The Ultimate	1991	2019	A hybrid roller coaster once the longest in the world designed by Big Country Motioneering and Robert Staveley. Scrapped 2023.
28	Thunderdome	2018	2022	A Waltzer on loan from John Armitage
29	Ladybug	1995	2023	A Modern Products Ladybug themed roundabout ride
30	Animal Carnival	2007	2023	A zoo animal themed roundabout ride
31	Treetop Trails	2016	2023	Suspended woodland net trail
32	Eagles Claw	2004	2024	KMG Afterburner	Spin Bug