Flying Ant Day 2026 - Stockport, UK

Today has been Flying Ant Day 2026!

Flying Ant Day 2026 struck on Wednesday 8th July as the ant colony underneath a tree stump in our garden in Stockport, England erupted with hundreds of flying ants in the early evening of the heatwave day.

The Alnwick Garden Golf

A look at The Alnwick Garden Golf course.

Many thanks to our friend and minigolf rival John Moore for sending this photo of the minigolf course at The Alnwick Garden.

The Alnwick Garden Golf. Photo by John Moore, 2024

We're yet to visit The Alnwick Garden and we'll have to swing by for a game on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour one day.

Check out The Alnwick Garden website for more information.

Shed minigolf

Chatting with Andrew Wilcox of Readers Sheds and the Shed of the Year Awards I was reminded of this excellent shed-based crazy golf hole we played back in 2010.

Not only do you putt into a shed, but it's a musical obstacle too. Marvellous.

The garden crazy golf course in East Finchley was the 250th we visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've now been to 956 courses since 2006.

I thought I was obsessive about something, but this fella Richard is crazy golf nutter putter - also probably the first shed I have seen used as a crazy golf hole and not the place where they give the clubs out from! #shedlove https://t.co/M323OjOUbX

— Andrew Wilcox I❤️Sheds (@unclewilco) November 4, 2020

Visit the UrbanCrazy website for more information on the courses they create.

---------

Join our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter mailing list

Garden Minigolf

A look at Putting at Home.

We visited our 250th minigolf course ten years ago and it was one of the most unique layouts we've played.

The first, and to date only, garden shed I've putted into

We've now been to 948 miniature golf courses since 2006.

The 9-hole minigolf course was tailor-made and features some challenging obstacles and changeable holes!

It was built so games can vary from round to round and range from a 6-hole to a 9-hole course.

In 2011 I was runner-up in the London Invitational Tournament held at the course.

The marvellous back garden minigolf course was designed and built by UrbanCrazy, a UK-based minigolf business that designs and builds permanent miniature golf courses, provides portable layouts, supplies equipment and more.

Are you putting at home during the lockdown and isolation of social distancing?

We've seen quite a few indoor and garden crazy golf courses created over the last few weeks.

Our friends Pat and Mandy at The Putting Penguin were quick to organise the Putting Penguin Pandemic Putt Off – a stay-at-home putting competition with entries being submitted from around the world.

Our pals Tom and Robin at A Couple of Putts have also been logging all manner of isolation minigolf courses on their social media.

We've got plans for some indoor minigolf layouts too. We've also got quite a few minigolf games in the Crazy Golf Museum.

While a lot of the minigolf world is out of action, plans are still being drawn up for new courses, work is ongoing to finish courses where permissible, and ideas formulated for when it's safe to get back out on the course. If you'd like to have a chat about minigolf, marketing, minigolf marketing, or competitive socialising please do get in touch.

Crazy Golf at Southport's Botanic Gardens

Playing the Crazy Golf course at the Botanic Gardens in Southport.

We played a round on the Crazy Golf course at Southport's Botanic Gardens to celebrate Miniature Golf Day last Saturday.

We'd first visited the course in November 2016 when it became the 717th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. As it was out of season we didn't get a game on it that time.

The weather was brilliant on Saturday and luckily the course was open so it became the 528th played on our travels.

Hole 1

Hole 2

Hole 3

Hole 4

 

Hole 5

Hole 6

  

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

In our round on the 9-hole course Emily won with a score of 18 - a perfect par of all twos. I shot a 20, including one hole-in-one. Our friend Cat scored 27.

Emily playing hole 2

Emily playing hole 5

We've now visited 925 courses since September 2006. Five of those have been in Southport.

The Botanic Gardens Crazy Golf course is the sister course to the one in the town's Hesketh Park. We first visited that course in September 2009 and finally played it in October 2016.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Botanic Gardens and the Crazy Golf course. They are worth a visit if you're in town.

Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf at The Alnwick Garden

A look at the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf course in The Alnwick Garden at Alnwick Castle.

The Fogotten Garden Adventure Golf course has some huge obstacles and decorations

Charter member of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Christopher Gottfried has added another course visit to his list as he recently spotted the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf course in The Alnwick Garden while on a trip to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

An oversized club, ball and spider at the miniature golf course

At least the signmaker didn't forget

A Tremor-sized worm!

Check out the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf website for more details.

Some nice big toadstool obstacles on the course

We're looking forward to playing the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf and a visit to The Alnwick Garden - they've got a Poison Garden there! Intriguing.

Alnwick Castle

Christopher Gottfried has now been to 24 minigolf courses on his part of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, including courses in Turkey, Spain, Italy, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Indonesia!

Link:
- The Alnwick Garden

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Botanic Gardens Crazy Golf in Southport

A visit to the Crazy Golf course in Southport's Botanic Gardens.

The last time we arrived home from Southport we noticed that we'd missed out on visiting another Crazy Golf course. The layout is in the Botanic Gardens and is the sister site to the course in Hesketh Park and they do look very much alike.

Unfortunately we weren't able to have a game on the course as it was closed for the season.

The Lucky Last Hole. I won a free game card when I played at Hesketh Park. It's valid at the Botanic Gardens course too

The Botanic Gardens Crazy Golf course was the 717th course we've visited overall and the 691st visited in the UK.

This way to the Crazy Golf

We very much enjoyed our stroll around the Botanic Gardens and lake. There was lots of wildlife and some hidden tunnels dotted around too. It's well worth a visit.

A Miniature Train Ride was also mentioned on the signs in the park. We couldn't see it though

Related blog posts:
- Mini Golf course at Hesketh Park in Southport
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Southport

Video:
- Crazy Golf course at Southport's Botanic Gardens

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Brookside Miniature Railway in Poynton

A visit to the Brookside Miniature Railway in Poynton, Stockport.

Since moving north we've spotted a few miniature railways on our travels around our new local area. The first of these - the Brookside Miniature Railway in Poynton - was randomly found en route to Macclesfield last month.

The Brookside Miniature Railway is located at the Brookside Garden Centre in Poynton, near Hazel Grove and is well worth a visit. We spotted the sign from the road outside and had to call in for a visit.

Full steam ahead

We enjoyed our ride on the train so much that we took our friend, and fellow fan of miniature golf and railways, Oliver Florence there on his recent stay with us in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport.

Ollie and Richard on the train

Squire Richard with the Sir Richard engine

New locals of Cheadle

The "Greatest little railway in Cheshire". Not my words, the words of Phil Collins

A view of an engine

On our first visit fares were £1.80 for adults. As the route was shortened on our second visit tickets were £1.50

A long Stockport bench

As there is some building work going on through the winter the route of travel has been truncated. Luckily our first visit coincided with the last weekend of steam until next summer.

The closed section of line. Luckily we got to travel that way the week before our second visit

Check out the links below for more information on the Brookside Miniature Railway, as well as other miniature railways in the UK. Visiting them could become a new tickable list activity like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour...

Like Land of the Giants

Links:
- Brookside Miniature Railway in Poynton
- Brookside Garden Centre
- Miniature Railway World

Related blog posts:
- Miniature Railways