THE ULTIMATE Has Today Been CONFIRMED To Be Leaving Lightwater Valley PERMANENTLY!
The Ultimate – one of Europe’s LONGEST roller coasters currently located at Lightwater Valley Adventure Park near Ripon, North Yorkshire has today been CONFIRMED to be leaving the park, imminently.
Brighton Pier Group’s CEO Anne Ackord confirmed the park’s decision in an official interview with Your Harrogate in which she stated “we have decided to close The Ultimate permanently and remove it from the park”.
The decision to remove The Ultimate from the North Yorkshire family theme park comes as a devastating blow to many who have fond memories of riding the iconic roller coaster over the years since it first opened to the public back in 1991.
At the time, the new ride was the longest in the world spanning 7,442 ft (or in layman’s terms nearly 1 and a half miles) in length.
The ride also featured two lift hills both standing over 100 ft in height and a combination of steel track and wooden supports which officially made the Ultimate a hybrid roller coaster.
Over the years many have complained of how rough the ride had become and in 2019 The Ultimate finally became SBNO (standing but not operating) for the park’s 3 subsequent seasons.
Both of the ride’s halves were very stark in contrast with the first being very gradual and relaxed as you made your way to the second lift and then the second being, how shall we put it? BAT S*** CRAZY!!!
Overall as rough as it may have become The Ultimate definitely had a certain unique charm to it which no other roller coaster here in the UK possesses (in our opinion).
Speaking further about their decision to remove the ride, Anne Ackord said;
“We have devoted much time and effort considering the future of The Ultimate. The ride has been out of service for some years now and the process of assessing the viability of bringing it back into use was a long one.”
“Nevertheless, given both the investment required to bring it up to acceptable standards of safety and the re-imagining of Lightwater Valley as a family-orientated Adventure Park, we have decided to close The Ultimate permanently and remove it from the park.”
Anne also acknowledges the ride’s nostalgic legacy stating “We are mindful of its nostalgic status and that many of our visitors have fond memories of riding The Ultimate coaster.”, however this clearly hasn’t deterred them from making the difficult decision to remove the ride.
Sadly, due to the fact The Ultimate was built to the terrain it stands upon relocation of the ride unfortunately won’t be an option.
This therefore means that the iconic roller coaster has only one direction to take, and that’s the scrap heap.
At the end of the day only time will tell whether or not today’s decision will affect the park’s durability with guests long term.
Since 2021 however Lightwater Valley has instead being focusing on it’s new target audience of 12 and under, however in our opinion most of park’s current attractions only seem suited to those aged 8 and under.
Regardless of the new direction though Lightwater Valley’s iconic KMG Afterburner ‘The Eagle’s Claw’ still remains at the park and as such we hope to see this continue in the years ahead.
What are your thoughts on today’s news? Are you sad to see the ride finally leave the park? Or are you pleased by Lightwater Valley’s decision?
We’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings surrounding today’s news in the comments below.