15th October
2006
See Loudoun Castle from space and back in time!
Images from satellites have been used by the FBI
and MI5 for decades, to track down weapons and generally catch bad guys. But in
recent years, these photos have become widely available to anyone with the
internet, via websites like Microsoft's Windows Live Local.
We decided to check it
out.
After the traditional search for our home town, we
decided that it would be fun to see what our favourite theme park, Loudoun
Castle looked like from the air. We
soon discovered that Windows Live Local is not so "live" after
all...
Back at the start of the millennium, Loudoun Castle was a
very different place. The park was owned at that time by showman Raymond Codona,
and it could be said he basically used as a place to store his
fairground rides while making a little profit on the side. Our first
photograph is an overall view of Loudoun Castle from the air.
Here, we are 200m above the
ground:
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As you can see from this photo, emphasis at Loudoun
Castle at this time was on the walled garden area (now Pirate Cove). There are
only a couple of rides in the area now known as Dougal McDougal's Farm, these
being Splash Mountain Log Flume (now Logger's Leap) and the Wilde Maus - Loudoun's old wooden
rollercoaster. The farm area had not been established at this time. You can also
see how untidy the park landscape is compared to how it is
now.
The next photo in this set shows a close up of the
walled garden.
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This image shows the walled garden which, at this
time, housed most of the park's rides. In the middle of the garden is the old carousel - the
same place where the new Carousel sits today.
The old chair-o-planes ride can be seen in the top left
hand corner of the walled garden, and the yellow oval to the right of the
carousel is the original Wacky Worm rollercoaster. In the bottom right hand
corner, sitting in the place now occupied by The Black Pearl is the Supernova,
one of Loudoun's most popular rides from the past.
Another very
popular ride from this era was the Drop Zone - a 140ft tall drop tower ride. It
can be seen in this photo amongst the trees to the left of the walled
garden.
The next photo shows a close up of the area below the
walled garden, where Twist N Shout now stands.
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The red track you can see here belongs to the
Galaxy rollercoaster, which was taken by Codona when he left the park. The
Galaxy now operates on the travelling fair circuit. The ride next to it appears
to be a swinging ship ride, about half the size of the present day HMS Flora
McDougal. Note also the Go Karts ride, which is still in operation
today.
For the last photo, we've taken a little look up at the
area now called Dougal McDougal's Farm.
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The Wilde Maus wooden rollercoaster shown in the
bottom right here was one of only three in the UK and was removed in 2002. At
one point it was rumoured that Mr Codona intended to restore the ride, at a cost
of £20,000 but this did not happen, at least not when the ride was at Loudoun.
The Rat, Loudoun's steel wild mouse rollercoaster, now takes the place of the
Wilde Maus.
Also clearly visible in this photo is the much loved Loggers Leap, known at this time as Splash Mountain Log Flume. The animal enclosure areas
had not been put to full use here.
When looking
at these photos, you can really see how much of a difference Henk Bembom has been made at
Loudoun over the last four years.
Surely this is a sign that for Loudoun, things can only get better.
We hope you
have enjoyed this feature, remember check back regularly for more! |
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