12 October 2026
INTRODUCTION
One of Yorkshire’s most cherished attractions, Lightwater Valley is a theme park found up north and has been around since the summer of 1969 till today. Started by the Staveley family, who started it back quite small, the park has now developed and changed over the years and has now ended up in new ownership at the start of 2026 with the Mellors Group, the owners of Fantasy Island.
Set within 175 acres of picturesque countryside, Lightwater Valley is home to over 35 attractions and perfect for the younger family audience. With the growth and expansion, the whole family can enjoy a day out here. New for 2026 they brought a new coaster, Spinning Racer, which won best new attraction in the UK Theme Park Awards earlier this year.
The park is open from March until November each season with tickets costing as little as £18 per person this October. For our visit, we managed to cover the Frightwater Valley event, their Halloween seasonal event which has plenty going on across the park. Open from 10:30am until 5pm, with added entertainment on for this event.
KEY INFO
Location – North Yorkshire
Operational Dates – Select 10th, 17th, 24th – 31st oct
Opening Time – 10:30am
Closing Time – 5pm
Cost – £18 earlybird (some upcharges)
Attraction Count – 1 maze, 1 show, several other additions
Time Spent – 3 hours
Top Tip – take a look at the event schedule as you enter to plan your day
THE OVERALL EVENT…
WOO – Value for money | WOO -event info | BOO – uniqueness
For Frightwater Valley, we see the park put on an array of additional entertainment. Icon Avenue brings the biggest Halloween stars to the park ready to take a selfie with you. Trick or Treat Trail takes you round the park to meet some of these infamous Halloween characters and gather some treats along the way. The dead pirate show brings the mischief on this swashbuckling adventure. Trick or Treat doors allow families to choose a door and hopefully you’ll pick right. There is even a live scare maze for you to step inside if you’re brave enough, and for smaller monsters, even the soft play has had a makeover. To end your day, DJ Scream takes to the decks for the end credits dance party.
As you can see with all of this extra offering and for the price point, for as little as £18, the value for money is off the charts. Getting access to the park as normal on top of this is insane. Super affordable for families. It is worth noting the Trick or Treat Trail is an upcharge of £12.50, but for the extra entertainment and sweets you gather along the way, it also seems fantastic value. The event hasn’t really got anything too unique about it, it is using the theme of movie characters from the Halloween world, which we thought kids would be scared of, but from what we saw they loved it. Online they list all of the entertainment, but when you get to the park they have posters about, which give timings for when everything is on, with some closure times on the entertainment, so it is worth taking a look upon entry to plan your day.
The Park
Whilst the Movie Mayhem event was on, we also got to enjoy the rest of the park like normal. It was a beautiful day and it allowed us to ride some rides. Whilst the park mainly focuses on the younger audience, there are a few rides for the adults. Such as Spinning Racer, a spinning coaster which is themed to the racing scene. It’s bright, colourful and was a lot of fun. It had a minimal queue and seemed to be enjoyed by the old and young. Splash Falls is also a classic, three giant water slides which get you a little wet, but provide plenty of fun. They have many other rides and a further 2 smaller coasters, being The Caterpillar and Ladybird, so the whole family has something to do at all times.
The food and drink offering was decent, with some food vendors just after the entrance offering different meats and sweet treats. We had freshly cooked fish and chips, which came as a large portion and tasted great. We also managed to sneak some adventure golf in on the Jurassic course, which was simple, fun and cheap at £3.50 extra per person.
Icon Avenue
WOO – Actor Performance
Icon Avenue was a fantastic addition and this is made more alive from the characters who roam the street. They have a fairly large path to cover, but with the facades they have built and some simple theming elements added alongside, it was good. From Harley Quinn and Ghostbusters as some of the team, they interacted with the whole family, sometimes getting photos, sometimes getting a few scares along the way.
BOO – Screams
Obviously this is a family attraction and that means the scares weren’t for us. They were pretty freaky and if I was a kid, I think I’d be terrified to walk through here but, from the families walking through, most were fearless.
WOO – Enjoyment
This was a nice addition to the park, taking a pretty boring pathway and making something more from it. We were surprised with what they managed to do and the whole piece just came together.
Live Scare Maze
WOO – Enjoyment
The scare maze was interesting to see the park do. It has no unique name but it was enjoyed the two times we went through. They have put effort in, the characters enjoyed what they were doing and just the whole atmosphere was right.
BOO – Actor Utilisation
With the two times we did this, the actor consistency was very different. There was only a few in here and it seems they struggled to get around the whole maze to follow you. This might have been because we were adults, however it was what we saw and experienced.
WOO – Concept
We loved the idea of Lightwater Valley creating a family maze. It was a mixture of stuff inside with some great elements to it. It was surprising and different for a family park to do something like this during the day and it worked well, with some older kids being too scared, whilst younger kids loved it.
Our time at Lightwater Valley for the Frightwater Valley Movie Mayhem event was so much fun. We had so many surprises and since our last visit over 7 years ago, it was great to see the Mellors Group take over and start their new adventure. There is so much opportunity and potential to be had here, from a theme park perspective and a Halloween perspective. We hope we can see the whole place grow over the next few years and we will continue to support them the best we can.
A huge thank you to the team for inviting us to join them on their opening day of Movie Mayhem. They did provide us with complimentary entry to the park in return for our honest feedback and content. Please note, this is a family event and not for the thrill horror seekers.
Whilst you can, grab your early bird tickets and book via the website, and if you want to see a little more, take a look at our video before your visit!
PHOTO GALLERY
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