In East Ayrshire near Galston, there lies
an abandoned theme park… Loudoun Castle theme park was built on the
grounds of the castle of the same name. The original site was the ancestral home
of the Campbell family of Loudoun and at its height it was known as the Windsor of Scotland The castle was destroyed beyond repair by
a huge fire in 1941 and left as a ruin. The park was originally opened in 1995 by
a London-based company before being transferred into the ownership of Raymond Codona and then
finally taken over in 2002 by Henk Bembom’s Parkware Ltd Over the years the company had moved many
of its rides from their theme park in Margate to Loudoun Castle Including The Plough, said
to be the largest ‘Chair-O-Plane’ in the world On 15 July 2007, 18-year-old ride operator
Mark Blackwood fell from a roller coaster he was pushing, which had gotten stuck. He
was taken to Crosshouse Hospital for treatment but sadly passed away a few days later. After a two-week trial, the jury found the
park owners not guilty of failing to provide proper training and supervision. The park closed its doors in 2010 as the owners
stated it was no longer economically viable In 2014 the listed castle building and its
land was slated for redevelopment but to date no work has started so it’s been left to
nature to reclaim the rusting rollercoaster and the carousel.