Review: Viking Adventure Golf at Southport Pleasureland by Andrew Brown
After a hefty £1million investment, over 100 trees, thousands of plants, over 100 painted custom-made Viking warrior shields, three fountains, gallons of running water, and more, the brand new Viking Adventure Golf at Southport Pleasureland is now open!
I was in town with my wife and two daughters (aged 6 and 11) when we heard that visitors were now welcome.
We headed straight down, excited to try Southport’s newest attraction.
The course costs £10 per adult, or £8 senior citizens or children, or £32 for a family of four. We were each handed a Loyalty Card allowing us to collect five stamps and get a fifth game free.
We soon discovered the differences between ‘adventure golf’ and ‘crazy golf’.
There were no windmills on this course! It took us over an hour to get round, it’s a long way from a ‘five minutes and you’re done’ type of course.
This Viking Adventure Golf Course is not just suitable for little kids either, although our six year old loved it. It’s a great experience for people of all ages too.
The surroundings are beautiful. The environment has been created by celebrity TV gardener Matt Leigh, who will be recognised by many as the Gardener, Designer and Project Manager for the garden builds of ITV’s Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh.
There are scores of trees and thousands of flowers, shrubs and plants, all of different colours, textures and scents, attracting a small army of bumblebees and butterflies.
A team of workers have spent months building hundreds of metres of walkways, bridges, and Viking features such as Viking shelters, huts and longhouses (handy for shade during the heatwave when we were there!)
The new facility is environmentally sensitive too with wood used for construction reclaimed from the former zoo which stood nearby several years ago and from trees which were blown down during the fierce storms which struck the coastline earlier this year.
The Viking Adventure Golf has been transformed from the old car park in front of the amusement park into the new attraction. It is operated by, but separate from the main amusement park.
People looking for a full day out can try Pleasureland too – entry is now free – or a ride on the Big Wheel Southport, a 35-metre high observation wheel which opened earlier this year, or the Southport Pleasureland Miniature Railway.
The area is growing, presenting an increasing number of reasons for people to visit.
Work is continuing on a corner of the golf site, which is due to see a new Viking themed longhouse eatery and bar.
You can tell that no expense has been spared on the adventure golf course. The intense greenery ensures that you’re indulging in pure escapism, immersed in the golf before you amidst the sounds of all the running water and the fountains.
It’s punctured only by the shrieks from the nearby log flume, although during the afternoon we were there, local DJ Mark Pickup was hosting an afternoon headlined by K-Klass next to the new Alpine Village nearby.
There are 18 very different holes to enjoy, which means that it takes a while to complete, and you can take as long as you like to wander round.
It’s fun working out the little quirks and the very different challenges of each hole.
On the one occasion a shot missed its mark and spun off into a water feature, a worker on site was happy to provide us with a replacement ball.
By the end of the course we’d enjoyed so much practice we could probably take on Tommy Fleetwood.
None of us have ever played an adventure golf course like this before. It is something new, exciting and truly unique for the area, more reminiscent of something you might enjoy in the US.
Best of all it was enjoyed thoroughly by all of us of all ages, not something that always happens on days out.
We’re delighted to see this great new attraction here in Southport.
- For more details about Southport Pleasureland and for tickets please visit: www.southportpleasureland.com
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