Minigolf in Castleford

A return visit to Castleford.

On our way home from a weekend away in Doncaster we made a stop at the entertainment, leisure and retail area at Junction 32 of the M62 as it's a real minigolf hotbed.

There are six miniature golf courses with a total of 87-holes to play in a very small area!

Xplore at the Xscape Centre is home to two indoor Cosmic Golf glow-in-the-dark courses. One is a 6-hole layout called the Search for Atlantis. The other is the Curse of the Mummy in 3D (or 4D depending on which sign you read). The 3D course is a 9-hole layout and one where you need to wear 3D glasses to enjoy the full effects.

Search for Atlantis Cosmic Golf at Xplore in Xscape Yorkshire

These two Xplore courses were the 199th and 200th visited on our travels back in 2010. We've now been to 945 courses!

Curse of the Mummy 4D Cosmic Golf at Xplore in Xscape Yorkshire

Towards the back of Xscape is the two course, 36-hole indoor Volcano Falls Adventure Golf centre.

Volcano Falls Adventure Golf at Xscape Yorkshire in Castleford

Players can play on the Volcano Valley and T Rex Trails.

Heading out of Xscape and over the road to the Junction 32 Outlet Shopping Centre you will find two outdoor 18-hole courses at Mr Mulligans Adventure Golf.

Mr Mulligans Adventure Golf at the Junction 32 Outlet Shopping Centre in Castleford

When we last visited Castleford these courses were known as Pirate Island Adventure Golf.

The six courses in Castleford were some of the 20 minigolf layouts we went to in the first 20 days of 2020.

Once you arrive at Junction 32 in Castleford you don't require any further transport to get to any of the courses there. It has the most minigolf courses of any inland place in the UK.

Of the places we've visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Skegness is the town with the most minigolf courses in the UK. Skeggy has 120-holes spread across ten seafront courses.

New Ghetto Golf course opening in Leeds

The new Ghetto Golf location in the Burley area of Leeds, West Yorkshire has been given the green light and it's hoped that the venue will be open in October this year.

The adults-only Leeds venue will join the existing Ghetto Golf courses in Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle upon Tyne.

A bowling-themed hole at the original Ghetto Golf at Cains Brewery in Liverpool

Ghetto Golf at the Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham

One of the holes at Ghetto Golf at Hoults Yard in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne

All of the Ghetto Golf courses feature UV glow-in-the-dark sections of the course

Related blog posts:
- Leeds
- Ghetto Golf

Arcade Club in Leeds

A visit to Arcade Club in Leeds.

We visited the new Arcade Club venue in Leeds yesterday. What a place!

Earlier this year we visited the original Arcade Club in Bury and were very impressed by the selection of games on offer to play.

Always nice to visit Pac-Land

Once you've paid your entry fee (we paid £16 per adult) you get to play hundreds of games all set on free play.

Three floors of fun

It's an amazing place to spend anything from a few hours to a whole day.

A very small selection of the hundreds of games available to play

As someone who grew up going to arcades in the 80's and 90's it's superb to relive those memories by playing arcade classics like Pac-Land, The New Zealand Story and Bubble Bobble. But I also really like the fact there are games available that I'd only had a glimpse of back in the day, or those that were out of my price range to play.

Pac-Land

One of those was The Last Bounty Hunter, a live-action on-rails LaserDisc light-gun game. Back in the day it would've been one of the expensive 50p or a pound a go games I could only dream of playing. Watching older players pumping the machine full of money while firing away at a selection of bad guys and then seeing the really cheesy cut scenes as the actors die is indelibly burned on my mind like screen burn on a CRT monitor.

The Last Bounty Hunter

I easily got my money's worth by playing The Last Bounty Hunter and managed to get to the third stage. I could've spent more time on it but I had to wander and play other games.

The ground level is home to pinball tables, quirky Japanese import games, old racing and driving games and new arcade machines.

As a big fan of Resident Evil games there was one game I spotted and immediately wanted to play. After waiting for some other players to finish their go Emily and I jumped on the Taito game Elevator Action Death Parade. It was brilliant.

We arrived at 11.30am and there was a steady flow of people of all ages into the venue while we were there. Even though it was busy, there was a nice buzz and we never felt cramped in playing machines and there are plenty of games on offer we didn't have to wait long to play any games.

Tempest. I'd never played the arcade game before, but I love the Atari Jaguar version

There were still plenty of games I could've had a go on there but there just wasn't time.

The Neo Geo section

We're looking forward to our next visit to Arcade Club. There will also be a new Arcade Club venue opening in Blackpool next year. Wonderful news.

Bubble Bobble, a true classic

You can find Arcade Club at the Abbey Retail Park in Kirkstall, Leeds.

Arcade Club - retail entertainment done right

Check out the Arcade Club website for more information, opening times and prices.

Ghetto Golf course planned for Burley, Leeds

A new Ghetto Golf course could be heading to Leeds.

Plans have been submitted for a new Ghetto Golf indoor minigolf venue to open in the Burley area of Leeds, West Yorkshire.

There are currently Ghetto Golf courses in Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Ghetto Golf at Hoults Yard in Byker, Newcastle

We love visiting Leeds and a new course will give us another great reason to go back.

Related blog posts:
- Ghetto Golf
- Leeds

Galactic Golf in Halifax

A visit to Galactic Golf in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

On Saturday we visited Halifax to play at Galactic Golf.

The venue is home to two space-themed indoor adventure golf courses - the Cosmic Quest and Moon Mission.

We both scored 45 in our round on the 18-hole Cosmic Quest course.

The Galactic Golf courses in Halifax were the 934th and 935th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. The Cosmic Quest layout was the 536th course played on our travels.

Check out the Galactic Golf website for more information, opening times and prices.

The UV section of the Moon Mission course

Pitch & Putt and Crazy Golf at Shibden Park in Halifax

A look at the Pitch & Putt and Crazy Golf courses at Shibden Park in Halifax.

We visited Halifax in West Yorkshire for the first time on Saturday. We've been meaning to go there since we moved north in 2016 and finally found some time to a look round. We really liked the town and are looking forward to a return visit.

While there we played at the new Galactic Golf indoor adventure golf. Once we'd wandered around the town centre we drove out via Shibden Park where we knew there was a four-hole(!) Crazy Golf course.

The entrance to the two miniature golf courses

Up these steps is the strangest Crazy Golf course we've ever seen

Our friend and minigolf rival Brad Shepherd had played the course in 2015 and we were intrigued by the layout.

It certainly looks a lot different now to the summer of 2015!

Unplayable

Shibden Park is a nice spot and we enjoyed our walk round it. We also found it's home to a miniature railway.

As the park is quite large and we didn't fancy a wild goose chase looking for the Crazy Golf course I called Brad and he told me the course was next to a Pitch & Putt course. Another bonus.

Unfortunately as it's currently out of season neither the Pitch & Putt or Crazy Golf was playable on this occasion.

The Pitch & Putt course

But the Crazy Golf was certainly a sight to behold!

Blimey!

It looked like a minigolf course graveyard

The Pitch and Putt course at Shibden Park was the 936th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. The Crazy Golf course the 937th.

Hole 1

Hole 2 is there

Hole 3

Hole 4

A closer look at an obstacle

One of the best worst course visits we've made in the last thirteen years

Hole 1

Hole 2

Hole 3

Hole 4