Opened in 1983, Camelot was one of the UK’s original fully themed parks, based on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which is set in the local area. The area was once covered by the largest lake in England, Martin Mere, also known as the Lost Lake of Sir Lancelot, originally drained in the 17th century. As a family theme park, attractions spread over the 140 acre site ranged from thrill rides to themed shows.
The park was taken over by the Granada Group in 1986; they already owned the “American west†themed American Adventure Park in Derbyshire. Like its sister park, Camelot saw its peak in the 1990s, with 500,000 visitors in 1995, but started to decline shortly afterwards. By 2005, visitor numbers had dropped to 340,000. It was bought out in 1998 by Prime Resorts, but they were forced to close it for the 2009 season, when it entered receivership. It was in March of this year when the hotel was sold to Lavender Hotels, the current owner. And by May the park had reopened, now owned by Story Group, and leased to operators, Knights leisure. In November 2012, however, it was again announced that the park would not be opening for the 2013 season. The operator blamed poor weather, the Queen’s jubilee and the London Olympics for poor gate numbers over the 2012 season, which ultimately resulted in this closure. Initially there was hope that the park would reopen under a new owner, but many of the rides have now been sold off so this looks unlikely.
After visiting American adventure in June I fancied more of a challenge, so this has been on my list for a while. I was fairly disappointed after the 2 hour drive to get kicked out after less than an hour, but then I did make the mistake of getting complacent and virtually wandering straight into the security guard. Schoolboy error! We avoided him long enough to get a few photos, but he soon caught up with us and asked us to leave. He mentioned this site, which made me laugh and told me he’d recently kicked someone out who’d travelled from New Zealand.
Obviously because of this, I only have some of the site photographed, but here they are anyway; I was massively surprised at how much is left and how much attention to detail has gone into the theming. I’d never visited the park while it was open and I’m gutted now I’ve seen it.
The park entrance and main gates the security guard kicked us out of.
The main entrance
Venom ride building
Ride car
Remaining models and ride parts abandoned
Buildings once occupied by games and food stands
Jousting arena
Ride height guide
Dungeon of Doom, Ghost train
Castle building
Knightmare rollercoaster (best photo I’ve got of it unfortunately because we’d just been spotted)
Spinning rollercoaster entrance
Themed Buildings
Gate
A leftover prize
Pirate ship
Operating box
On-board the pirate ship
Really enjoyed this explore, definitely the best so far and would go back. If anyone else is interested or has any other ideas let me know. I’m liking leisure sites at the moment but my (non-member) mate’s gonna get sick of being dragged along soon…
Cheers for looking
The park was taken over by the Granada Group in 1986; they already owned the “American west†themed American Adventure Park in Derbyshire. Like its sister park, Camelot saw its peak in the 1990s, with 500,000 visitors in 1995, but started to decline shortly afterwards. By 2005, visitor numbers had dropped to 340,000. It was bought out in 1998 by Prime Resorts, but they were forced to close it for the 2009 season, when it entered receivership. It was in March of this year when the hotel was sold to Lavender Hotels, the current owner. And by May the park had reopened, now owned by Story Group, and leased to operators, Knights leisure. In November 2012, however, it was again announced that the park would not be opening for the 2013 season. The operator blamed poor weather, the Queen’s jubilee and the London Olympics for poor gate numbers over the 2012 season, which ultimately resulted in this closure. Initially there was hope that the park would reopen under a new owner, but many of the rides have now been sold off so this looks unlikely.
After visiting American adventure in June I fancied more of a challenge, so this has been on my list for a while. I was fairly disappointed after the 2 hour drive to get kicked out after less than an hour, but then I did make the mistake of getting complacent and virtually wandering straight into the security guard. Schoolboy error! We avoided him long enough to get a few photos, but he soon caught up with us and asked us to leave. He mentioned this site, which made me laugh and told me he’d recently kicked someone out who’d travelled from New Zealand.
Obviously because of this, I only have some of the site photographed, but here they are anyway; I was massively surprised at how much is left and how much attention to detail has gone into the theming. I’d never visited the park while it was open and I’m gutted now I’ve seen it.
The park entrance and main gates the security guard kicked us out of.
The main entrance
Venom ride building
Ride car
Remaining models and ride parts abandoned
Buildings once occupied by games and food stands
Jousting arena
Ride height guide
Dungeon of Doom, Ghost train
Castle building
Knightmare rollercoaster (best photo I’ve got of it unfortunately because we’d just been spotted)
Spinning rollercoaster entrance
Themed Buildings
Gate
A leftover prize
Pirate ship
Operating box
On-board the pirate ship
Really enjoyed this explore, definitely the best so far and would go back. If anyone else is interested or has any other ideas let me know. I’m liking leisure sites at the moment but my (non-member) mate’s gonna get sick of being dragged along soon…
Cheers for looking
