March 2025
Guess I’ll kick this one off then. Yes, it’s on the tour bus, and no, it isn’t abandoned, but those that know me even a little bit will know that I just can’t resist an opportunity to climb a rollercoaster. Climbing Megafobia, the park's flagship rollercoaster, has been on my to-do list for a number of years now and when the news that the park was closing broke early in early March, I knew I needed to act fast and get it done.
Despite doing this hobby for well over a decade, I'd never really ventured into South Wales before. With Mrs GRONK going away for the weekend, I saw an opportunity to make a weekend of it and head down solo. My plan was to make the 4:30 drive down from Cheshire early one morning, tick the park off and then make my back over the next two days, ticking off everything that South Wales has to offer. I arrived at the park under the cover of darkness hoping that Secca wouldn’t have clocked on for the day yet. I quickly found myself alone in the grounds of Wales' only ‘Theme Park’.
The park certainly didn’t disappoint. I managed to climb the main lift hill in the darkness and watched the sun rise over Pembrokeshire before making my way down and having a mooch around the rest of the park. I must have spent a good two hours wondering around the various buildings and rides swell as climbing two other smaller coasters. I inevitably got a little bored and decided to make an exit before my presence was picked up. That is until one week later when I returned to the park with @Mr Budge who was also keen to take a look. Just as I had done previously, we made our way to Megafobia, climbing its 26m-high lift hill just as the sun was coming up. I used the rest of our visit to have a look around a few of the places I’d missed on my previous visit, virtually covering the full park again.
After spending a good 2:30 in the park, this time, Budge and I found ourselves in the main building of the log flume. We were innocently walking through the attraction when we must have triggered one of the on-ride PIRs and suddenly a pirate animatronic to our right burst into life and said “what are ye doing here?” in his best West Country accent. Naturally, we shit ourselves before we realised what we’d done. It was at this point we realised the jig might be up and the sound of the pirate may alert workers on site to our presence. We made our way outside the log flume and started to snap photos of the station when I clocked three maintenance workers heading in our direction. We quickly took shelter, hoping that they’d pass without noticing us……. They didn’t. The three workers took a seat a few meters away from us, looking in our direction, and we knew the jig was up. We slowly made our way in the opposite direction and were eventually met by a very disgruntled duty manager.
Whilst walking around the park, it is clear that it has long been the victim of underfunding and neglect. Having only closed in November last year, there are years' worth of maintenance jobs that just don't seem to have been done, with paint pealing from virtually every attraction. The parks owners haven't messed around either, having already dismantled numerous rides, presumably relocating them to other parks in their portfolio. I don't know what the future holds for this site, but I very much doubt it will reopen as a Theme Park.
[0] - Park Map
History
Oakwood Theme Park was a theme park located in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The park opened in the late 1980s as a very small family park with BMXs, a wooden fort, a 3D-style cinema experience show, go-karts and a water chute ride. In the mid-90’s the park started to incorporate larger ‘thrill rides’ which included Megafobia in 1996, Vertigo in 1997, Hydro in 2002 and Speed in 2006, the latter of which was the first Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster in the United Kingdom and was at that time the steepest roller coaster in the country. The parks 26 meter tall wooden roller coaster ‘Megafobia’ was rated by enthusiasts soon after its installation as amongst the best in Europe.
Until March 2008, Oakwood Leisure Ltd. was owned and developed by the McNamara family, Pembrokeshire farmland owners who diversified into the leisure industry in 1987 after the introduction of milk quotas. The park took twelve months to research. Following an increase in visitor numbers after the arrival of the Snake River Falls water slide in 1994, the management decided to pursue the development of the park into a more 'thrilling' theme park. In 1996, the park received a wooden roller coaster from the American firm of Custom Coasters International. Built at a cost of £1.7m, Megafobia allowed the park to reach 500,000 visitors in one season for the first time. In 1996, Oakwood also began an annual After Dark event, with late-night opening, fireworks, entertainment and discounted evening entry. Several major additions would follow in the coming years: Vertigo, a sky swing, in 1997, Bounce, a shoot and drop tower, in 1999, Hydro (later Drenched) in 2002 and Speed: No Limits in 2006.
The only themed area at this time was 'Jake's Town', home to the Nutty Jake's Gold Mine dark ride and Jake's Puppet Theatre, with a wild west theme. In 2000 the area was rethemed as 'New Orleans' with the opening of a new haunted dark ride, Voodoo Mansion, replacing the puppet show. This was followed by a revamp of Nutty Jake's Gold Mine to Brer Rabbit's Burrow in 2001. In 2003, Voodoo Mansion was rebranded as "Spooky 3D" with updated scenes.
In 2008 the park was sold to Aspro Ocio S.A. of Spain, at the time the park’s New Orleans area was rethemed back to a wild west theme in 2012. Later that year, the park announced that it was starting a five-year investment plan, including redeveloping Kidz World into Neverland in 2013. A themed soundtrack was also introduced in 2018, produced by Nick Hutson, including for the park itself, the After Dark event and Megafobia. Oakwood previously didn't have a themed soundtrack for the park and often used licensed commercial music.
Summer 2013 brought a new development consisting of a Neverland themed area that opened on 23 May 2013. As part of the redevelopment, some of the children's rides were relocated to form a second themed area called 'Circus Land', occupying the former 'Plane Crazy' area (aimed at children under 8).
On 4 March 2025 it was announced that Oakwood Theme Park would permanently cease operations bringing 37 years of operation to an end.
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Fujifilm X-T5, 10-24mm f4 R OIS WR
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