Diggerland Yorkshire is under 20 minutes drive from home, yet having lived here for 10 years I must admit we have never been. Having been there on a recent school trip, my 7 year old came home raving about it, so we thought we should finally make it a family day trip to check it out! We went on a sunny Sunday in July with our 7 & 4 year old girls and my theme park loving sister in law.
Diggerland is billed as being ‘the ultimate adventure theme park’ where kids (over 90cm) and adults can ride on or actually operate a variety of construction machinery such as JCB and Komatsu diggers and dumper trucks. Some vehicles can be driven independently by the kids, and some require an adult to ride with them, depending on height restrictions. Both of the kids were tall enough to ride independently on the majority of the rides. They loved being let loose with the controls, and got the hang of driving with a steering wheel and a joystick very quickly. It was especially funny watching the 4 year old driving an enormous JCB on her own around the track. She looked so small, but handled it better than her auntie who was following behind!
There are also some passenger rides, such as the ground shuttle, land train and safari ride, where you can be driven around various areas of the park. The kids loved the train, as they got to sit in little barrels with their own steering wheels being pulled along behind. The highlight for me was the Sky shuttle, where you are lifted 50ft up into the air to get a bird’s eye view of the park and surrounding area – a peaceful interlude to an action packed day!
My husband and 7 year old spent ages testing their skills and patience with the JCB hook a duck – my daughter was not going to give up until she had hooked that last duck! They were also brave enough to go on the Spindizzy, where you are lifted off the ground in the bucket of a digger and spun round in alternating directions. (I was happy to miss out on that one!)
For younger visitors (under 90cm) ride options are more restricted, although their entry is free to reflect this. To increase the activity choice available to younger visitors, a new Little Tikes Wheelz outdoor play zone has been opened this summer. This area has lots of water play tables, cosy coupe cars to ride in and a range of push along diggers & trucks to play with. My 4 year old enjoyed playing with the water trays to cool off but I think this is ideally aimed at under 4s. Look out for their performance day special events over the summer, where you can test out some remote control vehicles with Little Tikes play specialists.
There are also some coin operated rides near this area – go karts and bumper cars, which was slightly annoying. Firstly, I felt that once you have paid to get in it would be nice if everything was included and secondly they only took the old £1 coins. So if you are planning to visit soon, be prepared and bring a little stash of old £1 coins in your pocket.
Before we knew it, we had been there for 4 hours and the time had flown by. The park laid out as an easy to navigate circuit, which is not overwhelming for young children to walk around and easily accessible for prams. Despite there being lots of visitors there it didn’t feel busy and there was minimal queuing for rides. The park was noticeably clean and tidy, and there were loads of very polite and helpful staff. (I think it’s a rite of passage for the local teenagers to have a weekend job there!) I was also impressed that there was no undertone of sexism – it was very much a park for boys & girls, and mums & dads! And it was nice to see the Duggy & Dotty mascots walking around giving high fives to the kids.
In exchange for writing an honest review, Diggerland kindly gave us a free family ticket for our visit. The pay on the day price for adults & kids over 90cm is £19.95, or £16.95 if you book online in advance. In my opinion this makes for quite a pricy family day out, as it would have cost us £67.80 in advance. It is however, a unique attraction – I can’t think of anywhere else where the kids would have the same opportunity to drive and operate vehicles and machinery. My girls have talked about it several times in the days following our visit to say how much they enjoyed it and it has clearly made a lasting impression.
Diggerland Yorkshire, Willowbridge Lane, Castleford, WF10 5NW.