It's been a long time coming, but the Adventure Centre at Ratho
just outside Edinburgh is scheduled to open in mid-October and we
were among a select - ahem - group of journalists invited to see the
nearly complete centre last week.
We could blather on about the statistics - and we will - but
nothing quite prepares you for the massive 'wow factor' of Ratho.
From a distance it looks like some sort of market garden centre, but
as you walk into the building, you're instantly confronted with huge
picture windows looking out over a cavernous, glass-roofed indoor
climbing arena.
It's huge, simply vast, the largest covered climbing wall in the
world in fact, and it makes you gasp. There's a huge overhanging
training wall, a towering competition wall, an extensive beginners
area, plus three huge artificial freestanding boulders and more. In
total there are 2,500 square metres of artificial walls plus a 6,000
metre square natural rock face.
When we were there, routes were being set, holds bolted in place,
and just the sheer quantity of those reflects the scale of the place.
Wondering around in fact, it's so big that you forget that you're
inside at all. Mad...
In a quarry...
The centre's been built inside a quarry, yep, actually inside a
big hole in the ground, and the natural rock is visible both inside
the rooms where it forms walls and 'outside' in the climbing arena.
And it's far more than just a climbing centre, though that's how
the idea was born. Now the £25 million project is intended to
provide a 'gateway to adventure'. There are all the climbing
facilities sure, but also a state of the art gym, an indoor scuba
pool, the Scottish National Judo Centre - judo players are planning
to use climbing training to improve grip strength - a sprts therapy
clinic, health spa, Via Ferrata, an aerial adventure course, retail
facilities, including a huge Tiso outdoor shop etc, etc, etc...
Oh, and an 200-seat auditorium, a bar, restaurant,
accommodation... It's even going to host a Scottish national mountain
biking skills centre, though the biking trails will be outside the
building.
Ethics Too
Hearteningly
the people behind the centre have a strong commitment to make an
appreciation of outdoor ethics, history and the environment an
intrinsic part of courses at Ratho. Outdoor heritage,' they say, will
be built into the course structure. And to underline this, the
remaining outdoor section of the quarry with its 50-odd climbing
routes from VS to E5 will remain free to use, though accessed through
the main centre.
Those stats...
The photos, the first published that we know of, will tell you
more than the bare stats, but here are a few for you anyway:
The centre has the largest indoor climbing arena in the world and
- probably - the highest indoor wall in the UK. There will be 60 to
70 full-time staff and around 120 part-timers. There are 220 lockers
in each changing room, one for women and one for men and Ratho can
manage 700,000 user visits per year. The first paying customers are
expected to be admitted some time between 17 and 25 October. Finally,
monthly membershipis somewhere around £40 to use all facilities,
with numerous permutations of facilities and joint and family
memberships available too.
Time to move...
The centre's about ten miles from Edinburgh and it's astonishing.
The only thing wrong with it is that it's too far away from OM HQ on
the edge of the Peak District :-(
For more information about The Adventure Centre, Ratho, see the
web
site.
richard bradley
