History
“Oakwood Theme Park, located in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, was the country's largest theme park and a beloved destination for nearly four decades. Established in 1987 by the McNamara family, it evolved from a modest family venture into a premier attraction renowned for its thrilling rides and family-friendly experiences. The park's standout attraction ‘Megafobia’, was a wooden roller coaster opened in 1996, featuring a twister-style layout, an 85-foot height, and speeds up to 48 mph. Another notable ride, ‘Speed: No Limits’, introduced in 2006, was the UK's first beyond-vertical-drop coaster, boasting a 97-degree descent and reaching speeds of 59 mph. Despite significant investments totaling over £25 million since its acquisition by Aspro Parks in 2008, Oakwood faced mounting financial challenges, including rising operational costs and declining visitor numbers. These issues culminated in the park's permanent closure in March 2025, marking the end of an era for a site that had become a rite of passage for many Welsh families. Although decommission is well underway and some of the attractions have already been or are undergoing dismantling, efforts are underway by local groups, such as Richens Leisure Projects with a proposal to breathe new life into the cherished amusement park, fuelled by their own fond childhood memories. RLP announced that it had devised a phased capital reinvestment strategy to revamp the site's infrastructure and reposition Oakwood as a premier national leisure destination. They weren’t able to disclose specific figures but added "the figures are solid, the strategy is backed by real modelling, and the ambition matches the scale of what Oakwood could be”.
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Visited here one very early morning with mr @GRONK back in March. Dan had already visited the week before so had a good idea of the place and i was eager to see it before the demo teams moved in. Setting off at midnight down 5 hours of bendy welsh A roads, we were aiming to get in and be on the 'Megafobia' for golden hour. A few coffee stops later we arrived later than expected with daylight creeping upon us but we wasted no time battling through thick vegetation and thorns to make our way in. “Oakwood Theme Park, located in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, was the country's largest theme park and a beloved destination for nearly four decades. Established in 1987 by the McNamara family, it evolved from a modest family venture into a premier attraction renowned for its thrilling rides and family-friendly experiences. The park's standout attraction ‘Megafobia’, was a wooden roller coaster opened in 1996, featuring a twister-style layout, an 85-foot height, and speeds up to 48 mph. Another notable ride, ‘Speed: No Limits’, introduced in 2006, was the UK's first beyond-vertical-drop coaster, boasting a 97-degree descent and reaching speeds of 59 mph. Despite significant investments totaling over £25 million since its acquisition by Aspro Parks in 2008, Oakwood faced mounting financial challenges, including rising operational costs and declining visitor numbers. These issues culminated in the park's permanent closure in March 2025, marking the end of an era for a site that had become a rite of passage for many Welsh families. Although decommission is well underway and some of the attractions have already been or are undergoing dismantling, efforts are underway by local groups, such as Richens Leisure Projects with a proposal to breathe new life into the cherished amusement park, fuelled by their own fond childhood memories. RLP announced that it had devised a phased capital reinvestment strategy to revamp the site's infrastructure and reposition Oakwood as a premier national leisure destination. They weren’t able to disclose specific figures but added "the figures are solid, the strategy is backed by real modelling, and the ambition matches the scale of what Oakwood could be”.
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After cautiously navigating around site i was happy to see that there wasn't any sign of security, cameras or any working PIR's. It seemed to be the same as when Dan had previously visited and he didn't notice anyone until the start of the day when workers started to arrive. I was hoping to get the camera out on top of the big roller coaster but the partially rotten wood and exposure limited me to getting a few phone snaps then retreating back down, it looked in quite a shit state considering it had been open a few months and there had been signs on patch work carried out in other places.
We took advantage of being confident no one would turn up until around 8 and moved from ride to ride doing a whole loop around the park. Some of the rides had already been taken down, even in the week that Dan previously visited and most of the buildings we tried were sealed tight. They had freshly sealed 'spooky 3d' a ghost train that went underground which i was hoping to have a look at. The last ride we had wander at was the log flume which decided to come alive with loud sound effects and lights as we were walking around it, a pirates voice shouted something along the lines of 'wot do we av errrrrr then'. It seemed the sensors were still on and it thought we were a carriage passing through.
Shortly after this as we were about to leave workers started to arrive one by one in our direction, probably coming over to check what the noise was all about. They stopped by some benches and had there morning bru/fag's whilst we were hiding out in the exterior of the log flume tubing. Realising more people were starting to arrive and pretty soon we would no doubt be seen we decided to walk past like we were meant to be there, only thing was we didnt look the part of a site worker with no hi vis's and tripods in our hands. They must have guessed our true intentions as we herd various radios start to go off and were eventually surrounding by what seemed like the whole of site. We were met with a very un happy welshman who was shaking his head and egnored my 'good morning'. The other bloke seemed nice enough and was up for a friendly chat whilst he escorted us off site. It seems some locals have raised money in abid to re open the park although with demolition well underway it seems unlikely to happen.
