The adventure playground called Skymaze at Cotswold Wildlife Park has reopened to visitors after undergoing a complete rebuild.
The reopening coincides with the Easter holiday period and the attraction’s 56th consecutive year of operation.
Following extensive upgrades, the playground now provides an immersive adventure experience spanning three levels of interconnected treehouses.
The project was undertaken in partnership with playground specialists CAP.CO alongside the park’s own grounds maintenance department.
Paul Edwards, head of the grounds team at Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens, said the original Skymaze was constructed 12 years previously.
After a decade of considerable popularity and heavy daily use, the structure had begun to display signs of deterioration.
Management decided to demolish and rebuild the entire attraction from the ground up, producing a future-proofed version of the cherished adventure playground.
In the following months, with valuable input from RoSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), the park collaborated closely with CAP.CO, the company responsible for the original Skymaze, as designs started taking shape.
Skymaze features wooden walkways, rope bridges, crawl-through tunnels, slides, climbing walls, and a deliberately unbalanced walkway.
The refurbished playground represents the most substantial financial investment the park has ever made in its leisure facilities.
With the designs given approval, management scheduled demolition of the old Skymaze and construction of the new one for the winter period, ensuring completion ahead of Easter, which proved to be a major logistical undertaking.
Dismantling the old Skymaze alone was an enormous challenge.
The grounds team together with CAP.CO laboured continuously to meet the deadline.
The new Skymaze comprises more than 600 timber pieces and 120 Robinia support posts, each secured one metre deep in concrete foundations.
Following months of intensive building work, the new Skymaze has now been completed.
Management believes the refreshed version will provide enjoyment for many years to come.
Visitors are hoped to appreciate the new addition.
The playground has occupied its current position since the park first opened in 1970, originally equipped with a slide sourced from Burford Primary School.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a hand-built Trojan Horse served as the main draw, while the original swings remain in place, though solely the chains and seats have been replaced over time.
The tallest element of the new Skymaze is a viewing platform standing higher than 20 feet.
For smaller visitors, the adjoining Mini-Manor offers slides, a miniature zip line, and linked treehouses.
Cotswold Wildlife Park welcomes visitors every day from 10am, with final entry permitted at 4pm.
During the winter season, the last admission is at 3pm.