originally posted on 4/14/2025
Megafobia.
Photo: Alex Rigsby. View full-sized image.
Years from now, enthusiasts will remember the mid-2020s as being very harsh. Certainly, numerous new coasters — and even parks — are being built, but there have been many closures over the past year or two that have left a singed hole in many ACEers hearts and memories.
This spring, Oakwood Theme Park (Pembrokeshire, Wales) announced that the park is closing for good. Its statement read:
“It is with much sadness that we have to announce the immediate closure of Oakwood Theme Park and confirm the park will not open for the 2025 season. Following a strategic review of the business, Aspro Parks, owner and operator of Oakwood Theme Park, have reached this difficult decision due to the challenges presented by the current business environment. All possible avenues have been explored to avoid the closure, and we fully recognize the impact of the closure on the local community and the loss that will be felt as a result.
“Aspro Parks has invested over £25M since rescuing the park from being at risk of closure in 2008. Most recently a major refurbishment of Megafobia, the iconic wooden roller coaster was completed to great success and acclaim from enthusiasts and fans of the park.
“Despite the ongoing investment, visitor numbers have declined, the financial performance of the park has suffered, making further investment unsustainable. The unrelenting economic challenges ahead, increases in costs affecting all areas of the operation from ride parts to electricity costs, food and beverage inflation, increases in NLW and changes to national insurance thresholds have all impacted the decision.”
Photo: Brian Peters. View full-sized image.
This was unexpected, at least from those outside of park management.
Among the biggest losses is the wooden roller coaster, Megafobia. Built by Custom Coasters Inc. in 1996, it was an immediate sensation. So much so that coaster fans started taking trips to Wales (Wales??). As the U.K. Tour for ACE in 1996 was being planned, it became an essential part of the tour.
The managing director at that event commented that he was not only happy to see more than 150 Americans at Oakwood, but also pleased that 150 Americans had even heard of Oakwood. A reporter during ACE’s visit confessed to be a “coaster virgin.” He asked why Americans came all the way to Wales to ride it. When invited to take a ride with the group, he found himself riding it all day. (An enthusiast was born.)
Photo: Rus Ozana. View full-sized image.
As published roller coaster lists were emerging at the close of the century, Megafobia found itself firmly planted in the top ten, a significant feat for a coaster so remote. Megafobia was so well received, it became the virtual blueprint (close but not exact) for Rampage at Visionland, when that park opened in Bessemer, Alabama in 1998.
Speed: No Limits.
Photo: Dan Brewer. View full-sized image.
Oakwood had a small assortment of coasters. In addition to the famous Megafobia, some steel coasters graced the park. The largest of them was Speed: No Limits (2006), built by Gerstlauer. A Euro-Fighter model, it stood 115 feet tall and had a length just short of 2,000 feet.
Creepy Crawler.
Photo: Dan Brewer. View full-sized image.
Treetops Rollercoaster.
Photo: Keith Kastelic. View full-sized image.
Smaller rides included Treetops Rollercoaster (Zierer Tivoli), the park’s original coaster; Crocodile Coaster, a children’s powered ride; and Creepy Crawler, a Pinfari RC40 relocated from M&Ds Scotland’s Theme Park (Motherwell) in 2017.
Among the other charms at the park were a dark ride, a steel-trough alpine slide and an Intamin shoot-the-chute with its near-vertical plunge (one of only two ever built). Many an ACEer enjoyed the park’s vertical, “never-in-America,” wall slide.
The vertical funhouse slide was only for the daring.
Photo: Jim McDonnell. View full-sized image.
Hydro (later Drenched) was one of two near-vertical (85-degrees) Mega Splash shoot-the-chute rides from Intamin.
Photo: Rendell Bird. View full-sized image.
ACE officially visited the park on three occasions. In addition to the tour in 1996, Oakwood was part of the ACE European Coaster Odyssey in 2002 and ACE U.K. in 2015.
— Tim Baldwin, ACE News
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