M&D's

M&D's Scotland's Theme Park is an amusement park located in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Bordering on Strathclyde Park, the park contains four operating rollercoasters and two water rides among several fairground rides. As well as an arcade, theatre, ten-pin bowling and indoor reptile house, Amazonia.^[1]

Attractions

M&D's Theme Park claims to have over 40 rides and attractions, including four roller coasters, a log flume and several fairground type rides in addition to a number of rides designed for younger children. Most are travelling rides owned by the parks operators, Matthew and Douglas Taylor.

Roller coasters

pictured is the Tornado, the park's largest roller coaster

• Tornado: The park's largest roller coaster. Manufactured by Pinfari, with over 1 km of track. The track contains two 360 degree vertical loops in addition to several banked turns, pulling -2Gs at some points. This ride has a top speed of over 80 km/h.^[2] It formerly had a corkscrew which was removed after the 2005 season due to being exceptionally rough.
• Mad Mouse: The latest roller coaster to enter the park, this spinning Mad Mouse used to be one of M&D's travelling rides. It was built by Fabbri and is now at the theme park for the 2016 season.
• Big Apple: One of the smaller roller coasters in M&D's. Aimed at children, this roller coaster travels significantly slower than the other rides with a figure-of-eight track 300m long. The highlight of this ride is arguably the giant fibreglass apple it travels through.
• Runaway Mine Train: Another children's roller coaster. This ride has a track just over 200m long, featuring several dips and turns. Prior to 2007 the train had spinning cars, however this has now been replaced with a traditional fixed train and a traditional chain lift instead of the tire propelled one.
• Tsunami: Inverted roller coaster manufactured by Pinfari. The main element of this roller coaster is the roll over, which contains two inversions. This roller coaster is 650 m long and can reach speeds of up to 65 km/h. The average duration of a ride is just over 1 minute. Due to an incident on this roller coaster the ride is not operational and is closed until further notice.

Thrill rides

Ferris wheel

• Wave Swinger: The Wave Swinger is a traditional chair swing featuring 32 tilting chairs. The chairs, suspended by chains, are swung round at speed, with the ride reaching up to 14 revolutions per minute. The ride is constructed in a way that the chairs climb and fall as they swing round.
• Captain's Curse: The Captain's Curse is a pirate ship themed ride in M&D's. It recently underwent extensive refurbishment, being absent from the park during 2007-2008 when M&D's received it from Pleasureland. Similar to other pirate ship style rides, the Captain's Curse swings backwards and forwards, going increasingly further each swing although it does not complete a full rotation.
• Magic Carpet: The Magic Carpet, also known as "Ali Baba's Carpet" seats up to 40 people. The ride reaches a height of 14m at the top of a revolution, and swings at 14 full revolutions per minute. The seats are fixed facing forward while rising and falling, travelling round in a loop. Formerly located at Alton Towers.
• The Giant Condor: The only one of its kind in Europe. You can soar into the sky to over 30 metres in 28 custom built gondolas built for two! It's big, it’s very scary, it’s the Giant Condor. New for the 2015 season.

Water rides

A number of rides at the park are pictured: at the far left is Moby's Revenge, the water slides.

• Moby's Revenge: Moby's Revenge is a three-in-one water slide. The rightmost slide is a steep, straight chute, whereas the leftmost one is a winding spiral slide. The path in the centre is a straight chute similar to the one on the left, however this slide is not quite as steep and features several 'waves'.
• White Water: The largest water ride in the theme park. White water is a log flume, featuring two drops of up to 20m. This ride reaches speeds of up to 70 km/h at points. Souvenir photographs are also available to purchase at the end of the ride.

Junior Rides & Attractions

• Trampolines: 10 trampoline beds. Roughly around 5 minutes per session
• Crazy Boot: Inflatable fun house, which consists of slides, ball pools and soft punchbags.
• Other smaller rides include "Taxis", "Sea Storm" and "Flying Jumbos"

Past rides

• Kamikaze which was replaced by The Bomber Mark 2
• The Bomber Mark 2 which was replaced by the Giant Condor
• Space Coaster (formerly called Cobra and then Express) left after the 2015 season and is now being set up at Oakwood Theme Park as of July 2016.

Other attractions

• Amazonia: The only indoor rainforest in the whole of Scotland, it contains exotic animals such as the poison dart frog, tarantula and python.
• Devil's Island: An 18-hole miniature golf course, played over water and in caves.
• Krazy Congo: Giant indoor soft play-area, for young children.
• Gamezone: Giant amusement arcade, containing over 150 different games, including the most recently developed games.
• Alona Hotel The on-site hotel for visitors staying for a period of time. It contains a glasshouse restaurant and bar and an atrium for views overlooking the Strathclyde Loch.

Food and drink

Cosmic Bowl is Scotlands first glow in the dark bowling alley.

• The Family Restaurant: Formally Bizarre, is a family friendly restaurant with bar.
• Downtown USA: A 1960s styled diner serves American food and drink, and is decorated with Harley Davidsons and an authentic Italian carousel. The diner is also home to a 'Wimpy Bar' and 'Pancake Palace'.
• Cosmic Bowl: Cosmic Bowl is Scotlands first glow in the dark bowling alley. It contains a restaurant and 'inside out' bar. There is also arcade games such as Time Crisis, basketball & air hockey.
• Inside Out: The theme parks sports bar. 'Inside Out' shows a variety of sports on 6 LCD widescreens. The bar also has its own beer garden, which overlooks strathclyde loch.
• Diamond Lil's: An American Pool Bar. The bar contains 8 Pool tables, 2 Snooker Tables and a bar that primarily serves cocktails from various city's in the USA to give it a "more genuine" feel, similar to America it is over 21s.
• Guiseppi's: The parks Italian coffee shop and ice cream parlour. The bar looks out over Strathclyde Loch and serves a range of coffee's, ice cream, milkshakes and sandwiches, made with traditional Italian ingredients.

Incidents and accidents

In June 2009, six people were stranded on the park's Tornado roller coaster when high winds caused safety systems to activate.^[3]

On 4 July 2011, nine people, ranging in age from 9 to 49, had to be rescued from the Tsunami roller coaster, after a mechanical failure on the ride left them stranded 60 ft (18.2m) above the ground for up to eight hours.^[3]

In 2013 approximately there was an incident on the White Water Log Flume in which a teenage girl's leg was trapped between a barrier and a splashback on the ride's structure, causing a serious injury.^[4]

In August 2015, three people were injured when the White Water Log Flume slipped on its track,^[5] and later the same month a 58-year-old woman and three teenagers were forced to walk down from the top of the ride after it stuck at the highest point.^[6]

In March 2016, eight people had to be rescued from the Tornado roller coaster after it became stuck 20 ft (6.09m) above the ground at the theme park.^[7]

On 26 June 2016, the roller coaster Tsunami derailed, injuring seven children and two adults. On the way down it hit the main structure and came to rest on a toddlers' ride.^[8][9]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to M&D's.

• Official Website
• Travel