We've been on some big road-trips in the past few years and this summer we had a brilliant two-week holiday around the coast of South West England.
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| At Gilmores Golf in Newquay, part-way through our mammoth road-trip around the South West coast of England |
During our time away we visited the milestone 600th course. The Jurassic Adventure Golf course at the Santa-Fe Fun Park in Swanage, Dorset became the 364th course played when we visited on Sunday 31st May.
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| Jurassic Adventure Golf in Swanage |
Two weeks later we visited Mini Golf course number 661 at Vivary Park in Taunton, Somerset. The 18-hole course was the 380th we've played since the tour began in September 2006, and the 17th played on our holiday.
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| Mini Golf in Vivary Park, Taunton |
We got into playing minigolf after making a resolution in 2006 to visit as much of the UK's coast and on this trip we reached 227 seasides visited. We're looking forward to our next holiday already.
Here's the list of the 62 courses we visited in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset:
• Swanage (Santa Fe Fun Park) - Jurassic Adventure Golf - 600th course visited overall
• Lyme Regis (Lister Gardens) - Crazy Golf
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| The Lister Gardens Mini Golf course in Lyme Regis |
• Seaton - Grass Putting Green
• Oak Mead Family Golf Centre - Grass Putting Green
• Oak Mead Family Golf Centre - Pitch and Putt
• Salcombe Regis, near Sidmouth (Thorne Park Golf Centre) - Crazy Golf
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| Putting on the Crazy Golf course at Thorne Park Golf Centre near Sidmouth |
• Salcombe Regis, near Sidmouth (Thorne Park Golf Centre) - Grass Putting Green
• Salcombe Regis, near Sidmouth (Thorne Park Golf Centre) - Pitch and Putt
• Sidmouth (The Victoria Hotel) - Grass Putting Green
• Sidmouth (The Belmont Hotel) - Grass Putting Green
• Sidmouth (The Triangle / Coburg Fields) - Grass Putting Green
• Exmouth (Seafront) - Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf
• Exmouth (Seafront) - Grass Putting Green
• Exmouth (The Imperial Hotel) - Grass Putting Green
• Dawlish Warren (Funderland) - Adventure Golf
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| A crazy hole on the Funderland Adventure Golf course in Dawlish Warren |
• Dawlish (Station Road) - Swedish Felt B-Run Mini Golf
• Teignmouth (Sea Front) - Jurassic Adventure Golf
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| The Adventure Golf course in Teignmouth |
• Torquay (The Imperial Hotel) - Crazy Golf
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| Our hotel in Torquay had a Crazy Golf course - what a bonus! |
• Torquay (Torre Abbey Gardens) - Jungle Journey Adventure Golf
• Paignton (Sea Front) - Pirates Bay Adventure Golf
• Paignton (Junior Browns) - UV Indoor Crazy Golf - course removed from venue
• Goodrington Sands, Paignton - Beton Mini Golf - 600th course visited in the UK
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| The Goodrington Sands Beton Mini Golf course in Paignton |
• Roundham Head, Goodrington Sands, Paignton - Pitch and Putt
• Torquay (Torre Abbey Gardens) - Pitch and Putt
• Dartmouth (near Higher Ferry) - Grass Putting course
• Plymouth (The Hoe) - Grass Putting course
• Plymouth (West Hoe Park) - Treasure Island Adventure Golf
• St Martins (Parkdean Looe Bay Holiday Park) - Crazy Golf
• Looe (Looe Bowling Club, Marine Drive) - Upper Grass Putting course
• Looe (Looe Bowling Club, Marine Drive) - Lower Grass Putting course
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| Looe Bowling Club in Cornwall is home to two grass Putting courses with some great views |
• St Austell (Kidzworld Cornwall, Stadium Retail Park) - Mini Golf
• Swanpool, Falmouth (Swanpool Park) - Crazy Golf
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| The Crazy Golf course in Swanpool Park, Falmouth is in a great spot |
• Falmouth (Gyllyngvase Beach) - Crazy Golf - now part of a garden
• Penzance (The Alexandra Inn) - pub beer garden Crazy Golf
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| The beer garden of The Alexandra Inn, Penzance has a 17-hole Crazy Golf course in it! |
• St Ives (Porthminster Beach) - Grass Putting course
• St Ives (Porthmeor Beach) - Grass Putting course
• St Erth (Penwith Pitch and Putt) - Crazy Golf
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| The Penwith Pitch & Putt centre in St Erth, near St Ives, has a very bright and colourful Crazy Golf course |
• St Erth (Penwith Pitch and Putt) - Pitch and Putt
• Perranporth (Boating Lake) - Grass Putting course
• Newquay (Gilmores Golf) - Beton Crazy Mini Golf
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| Playing the Beton Mini Golf course at Gilmores Golf in Newquay |
• Newquay (Trenance Gardens) - Crazy Golf
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| The Trenance Gardens Crazy Golf course in Newquay |
• Newquay (Trenance Gardens) - Pitch and Putt
• Newquay (Killacourt) - Grass Putting course - out of season
• Newquay (Tolcarne Beach) - Crazy Golf - course on the cliff has been removed
• Newquay (Narrowcliff, near Tolcarne Beach) - Crazy Golf - hut remains, no course evident
• Newquay (The Headland Hotel, near Fistral Beach) - Grass Putting course
• Porth Island, Newquay (Krazy Golf at Newquay Football Golf) - Crazy Golf
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| Putting at the Krazy Golf course on Porth Island, Newquay |
• Mawgan Porth - Crazy Golf
• Mawgan Porth - Pitch and Putt
• Berryfields Holiday Park, Porthcothan Bay - Crazy Golf
• Padstow (Greens Cafe) - Crazy Golf - 650th course visited overall
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| Playing a Pyramid hole in Padstow |
• Padstow (Greens Cafe) - Grass Putting / Pitch and Putt
• Bude (Bude Haven Recreation Ground) - Crazy Golf
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| A snakey hole in Bude |
• Bude (Bude Haven Recreation Ground) - Grass Putting Green 1
• Bude (Bude Haven Recreation Ground) - Grass Putting Green 2
• Bude (Crooklets Beach) - Pitch and Putt
• Westward Ho! - Putting course on a signpost - not found
• Westward Ho! (Pebble Ridge) - Pirate Adventure Golf
• Woolacombe (The Bay Hotel) - Mini Golf (Pitch and Putt)
• Woolacombe (Funderland) - 15-hole Adventure Golf
• Ilfracombe (The Promenade) - Crazy Golf
• Taunton (Vivary Park) - Mini Golf
It wasn't possible to stop at, or play all of the mini, crazy and adventure golf courses, or all the putting greens and pitch & putts we saw on this trip, or those we'd heard about beforehand.
On Broad Road in Swanage there is a piece of parkland that overlooks the bay and pier. This area has appeared on many postcards over the years and used to be home to a grass Miniature Golf course.
The Parkdean Holiday Park in West Bay, near Bridport used to have a Crazy Golf course. We checked, it's no longer there.
After we'd played the Crazy Golf course in Lister Gardens in Lyme Regis we noticed on the town map that the gardens are also home to a grass Putting Green. We had noticed a two-tier patch of land near to the course, but it wasn't laid out for putting. Perhaps it was too early in the season.
This year the Ladram Bay Holiday Park has created a Jurassic Adventure Golf course at the site in Otterton near Budleigh Salterton. We didn't get a chance to play it. Charter member of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Christopher Gottfried did visit the course on a trip to Devon last year.
On that trip Christopher also visited Paignton and spotted a Crazy Golf course on the pier. On our visit we saw it had been removed. There were trampolines instead. The stroll along the pier wasn't all for naught though as I got to have a go on a Hillbilly Shooting Shack.
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| It's not minigolf, but it's a seaside classic - a Hillbilly Shooting Shack on Paignton Pier |
Other Crazy Golf courses we had to skip on this trip due to time constraints are at:
- Pecorama Games, Gardens and Trains in Beer
- Exmouth World of Country Life
- Babbacombe Model Village
- Holywell Bay Fun Park
- Lappa Valley Steam Railway
- Old MacDonald's Farm and Bed & Breakfast
- Bideford Atlantic Village
- Devon Railway Centre
There are also quite a few more miniature golf courses at holiday camps, caravan parks and hotels in the area.
Thanks to everyone for their tips and hints about places to visit on the trip, and special mentions to Tim 'Ace Man' Davies for his excellent course list on MiniatureGolfer.com, Jam Trubridge, Matt Dodd, Helen Dodd, Chris Harding, and Christopher Gottfried.
There'll be more blog posts about the courses we visited in the coming weeks so watch this space!
Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Dorset
- Devon
- Cornwall
- Somerset
Videos:
- Crazy Golf Hole in One at the Jurassic Adventure Golf course in Swanage
- Mini Golf Hole in One at the Jurassic Adventure Golf course in Swanage
- Crazy Golf in Lyme Regis, Dorset
- Mini Golf in Lyme Regis, Dorset
- Mini Golf Hole-in-One at The Imperial Hotel in Torquay
- Crazy Golf Hole-in-One at The Alexandra Inn, Penzance
- Playing Krazy Golf on Porth Island, Newquay
5 comments:
One of my areas of interest (among many) is old tokens from amusement arcades, theme parks and crazy golf courses. And a variety of other places and uses for that matter.
I bought an old token for Watermouth Castle and Family Theme Park, aka Gnomeland, at an antiques fair in Bedford at the weekend, and when I had a look on the theme park's website I spotted they have a Crazy Golf course!
Check out the two sides of the coin here.
Watermouth Castle and Family Theme Park is in Ilfracombe, North Devon - so we drove past it on our tour of the South West coast.
You can see a photo of the Adventure Land Crazy 'Fountain' Golf on the Watermouth Castle website.
They've got a brilliant mascot too.
Link:
- Watermouth Castle and Family Theme Park
Hmmm - Pub & crazy golf. Class!
I like tokens too :))
We've played Crazy Golf in a few Pub Beer Gardens over the years *hic* - Details of Pub Miniature Golf courses we've found on our travels.
The 601st course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was the Mini Golf course at Lister Gardens in Lyme Regis, Dorset.
A look at the Porth Island Krazy Golf course in Newquay, Cornwall.
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