UK’s ‘best theme park’ to open huge new £12m Viking world in May | UK | News
Paultons Park has announced they’re opening a new Viking-themed land (Image: Paultons Park)
A Hampshire theme park recently named among the world’s top-rated attractions has unveiled plans for its biggest investment to date, a £12 million Viking-themed park set to open in May. Family-owned Paultons Park, located in Ower on the edge of the New Forest, announced that its new area, Valgard: Realm of the Vikings, will be aimed at families with older children and teenagers and will introduce some of the park’s most ambitious rides yet.
The development marks a major step forward for the park, which has steadily built a reputation for combining family-friendly attractions with increasingly bold thrill rides. The Viking world will feature two headline attractions. The first is Drakon, Paultons Park’s first-ever inverting rollercoaster, which will include a vertical lift hill and two twists.
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Paulton’s Park was named the best theme park in the UK (Image: -)
The second is Vild Swing, a high-thrill pendulum-style ride that will swing riders 39 feet (12 metres) into the air. Together, the rides signal a clear move towards more adrenaline-fuelled experiences within the park.
Valgard will also see the transformation of the existing Cobra ride, which will be rethemed into a Viking bobsled-style attraction called Raven. In addition, the new land will include a themed, high-capacity restaurant and a new playground designed for younger visitors, ensuring the area caters to a broad age range.
The announcement came on the same day Paultons Park officially opened Ghostly Manor, a £3.5 million indoor dark ride aimed at families. The attraction further underlines the park’s recent focus on immersive theming and storytelling, complementing its more traditional rides.
James Mancey, deputy managing director at Paultons Park, said the Viking world represents the most ambitious project in the park’s history.
“We are thrilled to share our plans for our largest and boldest investment to date, and to do so on the day that we welcomed guests into our brand-new Ghostly Manor,” he said. “As an independent, family-owned theme park, we’re incredibly proud of the investments we make to deliver the very best guest experience.”
He added that the new rides would be “bigger and better than ever before” and confirmed that development would not stop with Valgard’s initial opening.
Park bosses have revealed that another major thrill ride is already planned for the Viking area in 2027, describing it only as a “water-related experience”.
Paultons Park spans 140 acres (57 hectares) and has been welcoming visitors since May 17, 1983. The park is owned and run by the Mancey family, who purchased the site – including its historic manor house, gardens, parkland and lake designed by Capability Brown – at auction in 1979.
While Paultons Park is best known nationally as the home of Peppa Pig World, which opened in 2011 and remains a huge draw for families with young children, recent years have seen the attraction broaden its appeal. The introduction of more intense rides and themed lands has helped attract older visitors while retaining its family-friendly reputation.
Last year, Paultons Park was named the best UK amusement park and the eighth best-rated in the world in the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards 2025. The park also outperformed larger UK rivals such as Alton Towers and Thorpe Park in the “World Amusement and Water Park” category.
The rankings are based on an algorithm that analyses the quantity and quality of visitor reviews and ratings collected over a 12-month period. The only UK-based attraction to finish above Paultons Park was The Web Adventure Park in Wigginton, which ranked seventh overall.
