The Ultimate, Steel roller coaster in Lightwater Valley, North Yorkshire, England
The Ultimate is a steel roller coaster in Lightwater Valley, North Yorkshire, that once ranked among the longest in the world. The installation extended across 2268 meters through an 18-hectare woodland area and used two lift hills reaching heights of 31 and 33 meters.
British Rail Engineering Limited constructed this roller coaster in 1991, making it the longest in the world until Steel Dragon 2000 opened in Japan. Operations ended in 2019 after the park shifted its focus toward family attractions.
The name came from a BBC Radio 1 contest, and British boxer Frank Bruno attended the official opening ceremony on July 17, 1991. The design respected the woodland setting, weaving the track between trees rather than clearing large sections of forest.
The park closed this roller coaster in 2019 due to rising maintenance costs and a shift toward family-focused attractions. Visitors can still spot sections of the old track between the trees while walking through the grounds.
Each ride lasted more than five minutes and carried passengers through dense forest sections at speeds reaching 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour). The construction was one of the few major roller coasters built by a British railway company using domestic rather than imported technology.
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