| Company type | Employee owned |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | UK |
| Services | Ropes courses, zip wires |
| Website | goape |
Go Ape! is an outdoor adventure company which runs tree top ropes courses under the names Tree Top Challenge, Tree Top Adventure and Zip Trekking, as well as ground-based Forest Segway Safaris, at locations across the United Kingdom and the United States.[ citation needed ]
The company was founded in 2002 by Rebecca and Tristram Mayhew, after they were inspired by a tree-top adventure course in France, and has a contract with the Forestry Commission for courses on multiple sites. [1] The first course opened in March 2002 in Thetford Forest, on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk; it was the first self-belay tree top ropes course in Britain. [2] In 2003, the company won a Best Tourist Attraction award [2] and has also won other awards. [3] In 2007, it was shortlisted for the Best Norfolk Attraction award at the Tourism In Norfolk Awards. [4] In 2008 the company opened new courses in Kent, Cumbria, Devon, Buckinghamshire and Staffordshire. [5] On 8 May 2010 Go Ape opened their first course in the United States at the Lake Needwood section of Rock Creek Regional Park in Rockville, Maryland. [6] In March 2015, a "Treetop adventure course" was opened in Wake County.
The courses are made up of zip wires, rope swings, ladders, walkways, bridges and tunnels made of wood. There are "Adventure" courses at a number of sites around the country designed for 6 - 12 year olds. There are also Segway scooters and mountain bikes. [7]
In 2014 Go Ape opened trampoline parks in East Kilbride, Wolverhampton and Stevenage under the name Air Space. This part of the business was sold in 2017 to Oxygen Freejumping. [8] On 29 September 2019, Verity Bailes, from Peterborough, became the first person to complete Go Ape's Treetop Challenge at all 34 locations across the UK. [9] In 2021 Go Ape became employee owned.[ citation needed ]
There are 36 locations in parks, forests and woodlands in England, Scotland and Wales consisting of rope ladders, zip-lines, rope bridges, trapezes and swings. There are also 12 Forest Segway experiences, 25 Treetop Adventure, 16 Treetop Adventure Plus and 3 Nets Adventure courses. The course in Grizedale Forest, near The Lake District in Cumbria, has the longest dual zip-lines in Britain. [1] As of 2022 [update] , four Go Ape locations offer an axe throwing experience. [10]
There have been public opposition to some of Go Ape's proposals. They withdrew their application to build a course in Glasgow's Pollok Park after 5000 objections from local residents. [11] They chose not to build a course in the Bidjigal Reserve in New South Wales, [12] and met some opposition to their plans to expand in Moel Famau, North Wales. [13] In England, there was a public response over their proposal in Rivington [14] and Essex County Council declined a proposal after protests. [15] A Go Ape ropes course proposal in the United States was declined after a large neighbourhood outcry in Seattle's Lincoln Park. [16]
In 2008, a man aged 76 died after collapsing on a high wire platform at Go Ape's Aberfoyle, Scotland location. In a statement from the company, CEO Tristram Mayhew said that since 2002, 17 Go Ape courses had served over one million customers and "nothing like this has happened before". [17]
In 2016, at a Go Ape location in Delaware, USA, a woman fell 35 feet and died. A statement from the company said that she had disconnected herself from the safety system while waiting to use a zip line, and that the company had safely served over six million customers. [18]
Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, was a British barrister and politician.
A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bottom of the inclined cable by holding on to, or being attached to, the freely moving pulley. It has been described as essentially a Tyrolean traverse that engages gravity to assist its speed of movement. Its use is not confined to adventure sport, recreation, or tourism, although modern-day usage tends to favor those meanings.
Canopy walkways – also called canopy walks, treetop walks or treetop walkways – provide pedestrian access to a forest canopy. Early walkways consisted of bridges between trees in the canopy of a forest; mostly linked up with platforms inside or around the trees. They were originally intended as access to the upper regions of ancient forests for scientists conducting canopy research. Eventually, because they provided only limited, one-dimensional access to the trees, they were abandoned for canopy cranes. Today they serve as ecotourism attractions in places such as Dhlinza Forest, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Taman Negara National Park, Malaysia, Sedim River, Kulim, Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda and Kakum National Park, Ghana.
Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain and is located in a region straddling the north of Suffolk and the south of Norfolk in England. It covers over 19,000 ha in the form of a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
A ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high elements, low elements, or some combination of the two. Low elements take place on the ground or above the ground. High elements are usually constructed in trees or made of utility poles and require a belay for safety.
Wendover Woods is an area of woodland on the north edge of the Chiltern Hills in England. Named after the nearby town of Wendover, the woods are part of the Public Forest Estate and are managed by Forestry England.
Grizedale Forest is a 24.47 km2 area of woodland in the Lake District of North West England, located to the east of Coniston Water and to the south of Hawkshead. It is made up of a number of hills, small tarns and the settlements of Grizedale and Satterthwaite. It is owned and managed by Forestry England and is a popular tourist destination with waymarked footpaths, mountain biking, an aerial assault course, a 16-bed hostel, and a visitor centre with a children's playground, education centre, café and shop. The car-parking of Grizedale Forest Visitors Centre is situated on the site of the former Grizedale Hall where its remains can be still seen.
Black Park is a country park in Wexham, Buckinghamshire, England to the north of the A412 road. It is managed by Buckinghamshire Council, formerly County Council. It has an area of 250 hectares, of which two separate areas totalling 15.7 hectares have been designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). and a larger area of 66 hectares is a local nature reserve.
Grizedale is a hamlet in the Lake District of North West England, in the middle of the Grizedale Forest, located north of Satterthwaite and south of Hawkshead. It is part of the civil parish of Satterthwaite.
An adventure park is a place which can contain a wide variety of elements, including but not limited to, rope climbing exercises, obstacle courses, bouldering, rock climbing, target oriented activities, and zip-lines. They are usually intended for recreation.
Moors Valley Country Park, officially Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, is a Country Park jointly managed by Dorset Council and Forestry England. It is situated in Ashley Heath, Dorset on the border with Hampshire, in the south of England.
Lough Key Forest Park is an 800-hectare park on the southern shore of Lough Key, 40 km south east of Sligo town and 3 km east of Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland. Formerly part of the Rockingham Estate laid out by the King family, it is open to the public.
BeWILDerwood is an adventure park for families located in Horning, a parish in the English county of Norfolk. Self-described as a "curious treehouse adventure," the attraction is situated in a woodland area and features treehouses, rope bridges, slides, zip wires, a maze, and two special areas for children under five called "Toddlewood-on-the-Hill" and "Tiptoe Valley". The original branding was created by Purple Circle.
Mega Adventure Park - Singapore is located on the Sentosa Island, home to several of Singapore's main attractions. The park features the MegaZip flying fox, which spans 450m, flies at 60 km/hour, passing over the island's jungles and beaches. The park also includes a 36-obstacle treetop ropes course (MegaClimb), a 15-meter free fall simulator (MegaJump), and bungee-assisted trampolines (MegaBounce).
Tilgate Lake is the biggest of three lakes at Tilgate Park, and remains a popular water activity centre and tourist attraction in Crawley, West Sussex.Tilgate Lake has a wide variety of outdoor activities open to the general public, such as archery, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, mountain biking, raft building, rowing, running, sailing, standup paddleboarding, Open water swimming, team building, navigational challenges, tree climbing and zip trekking.
The Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center is an environmental and cultural community center and museum in Buford, Georgia, United States. The center opened in 2006 and is designed to be an educational facility with a focus on environmentalism. The building itself follows the center's environmental theme and is a green building that utilizes less water and energy than other buildings of its size. It hosts exhibits and summer programs, many of which are focused on environmental topics, including water science and preservation primarily geared towards children. Located at the center are an historic home and barn from the 1800s that were each moved to sit adjacent to the facility in 2012 from elsewhere in Gwinnett County. It also has a ropes course that opened in 2011 and is connected to a series of several miles of walking trails that lead to other nearby destinations.
Heart Lake Conservation Park (HLCA) occupies 169 hectares in the Etobicoke Creek watershed, within the City of Brampton, Ontario. It is owned and managed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA).
Loggerheads Country Park is a country park in the village of Loggerheads, Denbighshire, Wales. The park has a wooded river valley that follows the course of the River Alyn and high cliffs from within the Clwydian Range of mountains, with views of the range's tallest mountain Moel Famau. The park has a visitor centre, woodland walks, and two landmarks—a historic corn mill called Pentre Mill, and a gorge called Devil's Gorge.
Experience Based Learning, also known as EBL, is an Illinois-based Zip-line tour and installation company founded in 1993 by Steven Gustafson. Gustafson served on the board of directors for the standards developer for zip-lines, the Professional Ropes Course Association, as its president until 2015.
Zip World is a Welsh outdoor adventure activity company based in Llanrwst, Wales, United Kingdom. The company operates four sites in Wales, primarily focused on zip lines and outdoor adventure activity courses.