The Lost City Apocalypse Adventure Golf at Belfast Odyssey

A look at The Lost City Apocalypse Adventure Golf at Belfast Odyssey in Northern Ireland.

A big thank you to our friend and minigolf rival Mark Swain for sending us these photos from his visit to The Lost City Apocalypse Adventure Golf at Belfast Odyssey during the festive season.

The Lost City Apocalypse Adventure Golf at Belfast Odyssey is home to two indoor 18-hole adventure golf courses.

I've not seen an adventure golf arcade cabinet before!

Visit The Lost City Apocalypse Adventure Golf website for more information on the venue.

The Lost City Adventure Golf.

You can find The Lost City Adventure Golf courses at Belfast Cityside, Belfast Odyssey, Nottingham, and Hull.

Check out The Lost City Adventure Golf website for more information.

Playing at The Lost City Adventure Golf.

We've played at The Lost City Adventure Golf in Nottingham, England several times on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and in minigolf tournaments.

The Lost City Adventure Golf in Nottingham (August 2025)

Guest blog posts.

As well as the blog posts about our own crazy golf travels, we've posted guest blogs from friends and family from their visits to courses around the world.

It's excellent receiving photos, information and updates from - and about - crazy golf, minigolf, miniature golf putting, pitch & putt, adventure golf, and Putt-Putt courses around the world. There's such a wide-range and variety of courses out there.

We've met so many people and made some great friends on our travels since 2006. Many of whom have contributed to our travels by telling us about new courses, letting us know about course refurbs, or by sending over photos of courses they've been too. We've also received excellent photos of miniature golf courses from our family, friends, our networks, and course owners, managers, designers and builders themselves.

With this post about The Lost City Adventure Golf in Northern Ireland we've now published guest blog posts from 31 countries!

Link:

• The Lost City Adventure Golf

Related blog posts:

• Belfast
• Mark Swain
• Guest blog posts
• The Lost City Adventure Golf

Minigolf did you knows...?

Did you know these things about minigolf?

• The world's first miniature golf course was set-up at St Andrews, Scotland in 1867.
• James Barber opened the first minigolf course in the USA in 1916. The 'Lilliputian' miniature golf course was called 'Thistle Dhu' and located in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
• A Miniature Golf contest was part of the Olympic Games at the 1904 St Louis Games in the USA.
• Crazy Golf is 100 years old in 2025. The first course using the name 'Crazy Golf' opened on South Parade in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England in 1926.
• 1926 also saw the first artificial miniature golf course open in the USA. Garnet Carter opened the 'Tom Thumb' miniature golf course near Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• The first National Tom Thumb Golf Championship took place on the 23rd October 1930.
• The first Putt-Putt brand miniature golf course was set-up by Don Clayton in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA in 1954.
• There are several Guinness World Records for achievements in Minigolf, Miniature Golf, Crazy Golf, Adventure Golf, and Putt-Putt. The 2024 edition of the Guinness World Records book featured a whole page about minigolf and you can find details of the records on the Guinness World Records website.
• There are approximately 1,400 miniature golf courses in the British Isles.
• Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour is 20 years old in 2026! In that time we've visited over 1,000 courses.
• The Crazy Golf Museum is 16 years old in 2026. The virtual online museum is a treasure trove and archive for all things related to minigolf, crazy golf, adventure golf, miniature golf, Putt Putt, and putting.
• There are two 'miniature golf days' each year.
• 'National Miniature Golf Day' is always on the second Saturday in May. In 2026 that will be Saturday 9th May.
• The other minigolf day, 'Miniature Golf Day', is always on the 21st September. In 2026 the 21st falls on a Monday.

Do you have any other interesting minigolf facts or stats? If you do, get in touch and let us know what they are.

New minigolf courses in the UK

I'm always on the lookout for new minigolf courses.

I post about new places planned, in development and opening using the 'New course' tag here on the blog.

If you know of a new minigolf, crazy golf, or adventure golf course opening please do get in touch.

How many minigolf courses are there in the UK today?

As of July 2025, our research indicated there were approximately 1,436 minigolf courses around the UK (and the British Isles including Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and other islands). This figure included public courses, as well as those at pay-to-enter attractions, holiday parks, hotels, and other 'non-standard' locations. Some of these courses were also under construction / in development. Over time some locations have also been partially or fully refurbished, while others have completely swapped out an old course for a new one in the same spot. Since our last update we've also discovered and unearthed several courses we didn't previously know about that have opened in the last year or so!

Related blog posts:

• New Minigolf Courses in the UK: Mid-Year 2025 Update.
• New minigolf courses in the UK: January 2025
• New course

'Crazy Golf' is 100 years old this year

Crazy Golf is 100 years old in 2026.

The first miniature golf course using the name 'Crazy Golf' opened on South Parade in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England in 1926.

England's first 'Crazy Golf' course opened on South Parade in Skegness in 1926 and the game is widely known by that name in the UK. Crazy Golf is seldom, if ever, used overseas except in tourist spots popular with UK holidaymakers.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

In May 2015 The Original Crazy Golf course became the 363rd played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We'd first visited the course in 2011.

This sign for The Original Crazy Golf course in Skegness was located a little further down the road and next to another adventure golf course

From a Crazy Golf course to a hotel.

The Original Crazy Golf course in Skegness had been derelict since 2018 and the site has now had a Travelodge hotel and Starbucks drive-thru built on it.

Crazy Golf postcards from the course.

Here are two minigolf postcards from our collection showing the same location.

CRAZY GOLF. SKEGNESS. A Sapphire Card. LS2225. Posted from Skegness to New Basford, Nottingham in 1972

This postcard shows the course, note the name for the games is 'Craz-e-Golf'. This is interesting to see, and a name we'd not seen before

The postcard was sent to Liverpool from Skegness on the 21st June 1977 (a Tuesday). Note the nice postcard cancellation on the card too

The first miniature golf course.

The world's first miniature golf course was set-up at St Andrews, Scotland in 1867.

The Himalayas course is the world's first miniature golf and is home to the St Andrews Ladies' Putting Club. If you visit you'll find two superb grass putting layouts there - one 18-hole course and one consisting of 9-holes.

Related blog posts:

• Crazy Golf
• The Original Crazy Golf course on South Parade in Skegness, Lincolnshire (May 2011)
• Crazy Golf history: from a minigolf course to a hotel
• Minigolf did you knows...?
• Definitions of Miniature Golf
• 100 names for Miniature Golf
• Skegness
• Lincolnshire
• Postcards

Miniature Golf 'Days' in 2026

There are two 'miniature golf days' each year.

National Miniature Golf Day is always on the second Saturday in May. In 2026 that will be Saturday 9th May.

The other minigolf day, Miniature Golf Day, is always on the 21st September. In 2026 the 21st falls on a Monday.

Minigolf courses we've played on Miniature Golf Days in previous years

Happy New Year 2026!

Happy New Year!

All the very best for 2026.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour is 20 years old in 2026

Next year will be the 20th year playing on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

2026 will see us hit another big minigolf milestone as we mark 20 years of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour travels.

How it started.

We played the Victory Trail course at Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea, Hampshire, England on Saturday 30th September 2006. At the end of our 9-hole round I won a free game by firing the cannon on the lucky last hole!

When we got home from the weekend away we found a list of 600 or so minigolf courses in the UK and wider British Isles on the excellent MiniatureGolfer.com website that Tim 'Ace Man' Davies had compiled. We thought it'd be fun to see how many of them we could visit on day trips and weekends away to the seaside.

How its going.

To date we've been to 1,114 miniature golf courses. 1,053 of them have been in the British Isles.

As well as playing minigolf in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Jersey and the Isle of Man we’ve travelled to minigolf courses in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain (including Lanzarote and Majorca), Sweden and the USA.

From 600 courses in the UK to more than 1,300.

When our crazy golfing travels began in 2006 there were around 600 miniature golf courses in the UK and wider British Isles.

There are now more than 1,400 - and there are lots of new places to play the game opening all the time.

Unfortunately, several courses have closed over the years. But on a brighter note, some others have been refurbished, redeveloped, or completely transformed into new layouts.

All of the changes and updates have meant that our minigolfing quest to visit every course is becoming never-ending!

When we originally set off to visit as many courses as possible the target list was 600 in the British Isles. And almost 20 years later, we've still got around 50 of those original courses to visit!

Minigolf record makers.

Our travels have been recognised by the Guinness World Records, and I'm a record holder for "Most miniature golf courses visited" (902 at the time of going to press). Check out the Guinness World Records 2024 book and the GWR website to see a lot more minigolf records too!

Where next on our crazy minigolfing adventures?

Where do you think we should visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour next? Do get in touch to let us know your suggestions and recommendations, or drop your top picks for minigolf places in the comments.

Related blog posts:

• Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
• Minigolf Around the World
• 19 years of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:

• Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea

Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas!

19 years ago on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

A look back at the 10th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We visited the 10th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on this day 18 years ago.

On a bitterly cold 23rd December 2006 Emily, my brother Christopher and I headed along to the Horse & Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire to have a game on their beer garden Crazy Golf course.

And what a course it was - we'd not seen anything like it before! And we haven't seen anything quite like it since!

Crazy Golf at the Horse and Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire - December 2006

We visited the course again in April 2011 and while it was a bit drier, it was still a very mossy layout.

Crazy Golf at the Horse and Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire - April 2011

Little did we know back then that our interest in crazy golf would become an obsession and that we'd visit 1,114 courses over 19 years.

Together with Christopher and his family we've now been to a grand total of 1,168 courses since we all picked up a putter in Southsea on the 30th September 2006.

Blogiversary of the Ham and Egger Files

I've been blogging for 19 years today.

I'm often asked how is it that a blog about minigolf has the name the 'Ham and Egger Files'? The answer is that it didn't initially start out life as a minigolf blog.

My first blog post.

I published my first blog post about how I planned to participate in as many obscure and minority sports as I could and see what would happen with the (limited amount of) sporting ability I had!

What is a 'Ham & Egger'?

The term 'ham and egger' has connotations ranging from that of 'ordinary person' to that of 'loser'. The origin of the term comes from prize fighters whose modest skills wouldn’t let them win large purses. Therefore, the fighter or their manager - who received a percentage of any purses won - were never able to afford to eat better than ham and eggs.

Lots of blogs.

Since that first post 19 years ago I have published 6,648 blog posts and received 7,160,609 pageviews!

This time last year I had published 5,900 posts and received 3.5 million pageviews.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Our interest in minigolf, and what would soon become our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, had actually begun on the 30th September 2006, but I didn't publish a post about the sport until the 29th January 2007 when I announced that I had joined the British Minigolf Association - a competition circuit I made my actual debut on in Southend-on-Sea on the 28th April 2007.

We've now been to over 1,114 miniature golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. Our travels have been recognised by the Guinness World Records, and I'm a record holder for "Most miniature golf courses visited" (902 at the time of going to press).

When we began our travels there were around 600 courses in the UK. There are now more than 1,300, with new courses opening all the time.

Other sports & games are available

If you're wondering what happened to the quest to play lots of different sports, that has continued and I've participated in some very interesting events over the years!

A massive thank you goes out to everyone who has ever read one of my posts, commented, shared, or guest blogged on the site, it really is very much appreciated.

Happy Winter Solstice

Today marks midwinter and is the 'shortest day' and 'longest night' of the year.

Stonehenge The Big Mini Golf course in Hemsby, Norfolk (August 2021)

Did you know there's a Stonehenge-themed minigolf course in Hemsby, Norfolk?

Stonehenge The Big Mini Golf was the 174th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in June 2010 when it was a 15-hole layout. We first visited it in May 2009 when it was a 12-hole course. It's now an 18-hole course.

Here are two videos of us playing the course in June 2010.

Here are some videos of the course on our most recent visit in May 2022.

Christmas Crazy Golf in 2009

A look back at a festive pop-up crazy golf course in London.

Back in 2009 there was a Christmas-themed Minigolf course at Devonshire Square in London.

You had to putt into Santa's mouth - look in the photo above to see where it exited!

We'd played the course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in October of that year when it was a 'normal' pop-up.

Related blog posts:

• Christmas
• Father Christmas
• Santa Claus
• Crazy Golf
• Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Ephemera from The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds

A look at some items from The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

We recently played The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf course at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds and added these items to our collection.

A badge for scoring a hole-in-one at The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf in Leeds

A Guidebook for the venue

The scorecard inside the Guidebook

The scorecard

The rules side of the scorecard

Leaflets from The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf in Leeds

A card from The Wand & Tankard - the pub at The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf in Leeds

A card from The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf in Leeds

A pressed penny from the penny coin press

Penny Coin Press at The Hole in Wand Wizard Golf minigolf course in Leeds

Find out more.

You can find The Hole In Wand miniature golf courses in Blackpool, Chester, Leeds, Seaham and York.

Check out The Hole In Wand website for more information on the Leeds course, and the other venues.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds was the 595th course played and 1,092nd visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Link:

• The Hole In Wand

Related blog posts:

• Playing The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds
• The Hole In Wand
• The Hole In Wand Magical Mini Golf in York
• The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf in Chester
• Hole in Wand minigolf in Blackpool
• The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds
• Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
• Leeds

Videos

• The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf course at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds
• Hole 2 of The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf course at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds
• Hole 6 of The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf course at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds
• Hole 8 of The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf course at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds
• Hole 9 of The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf course at St Johns Shopping Centre in Leeds