ARE YOU the kind of person who will hop on the playground swings when no other parents are around? Will you queue for hours to get on a roller coaster? Do you have to be hauled out of the bumper cars at the funfair? It’s not fair, is it? Kids have all the fun. Well, grown-ups who miss the adrenalin-fuelled pleasures of youth should check out Killary Adventure Centre in Co Galway, one of the country’s best-known outdoor pursuits centres.
A bone-fide playground for adults, it has more fear-filled fun per square metre than any other location in the country. For a start it has the country’s only fixed bungee-jumping frame, the Thriller Bridge Jump (below), part of a tower complex from which you hurtle 30m to the ground before the cord snaps you back upwards at breakneck (metaphorically speaking) speed.
Alternatively, try out the giant swing, in which you and a buddy share the fear of being hoisted up a six-metre pole before releasing a safety catch, after which you drop and swing like a pendulum. It is pure exhilaration. The centre has all sorts of other white-knuckle activities, too, from rock climbing and abseiling to high ropes and zip wires, laser combat, wakeboarding and speedboat rides. Its eight-metre climbing wall seems like child’s play by comparison.
It’s not bad value, either, with three-hour rock-climbing, abseiling, high-rope, zip-wire or climbing-tower sessions starting at €48 per adult and €32 per child, although age restrictions apply.
killaryadventure.com