Ben Lowry: Remembering the Safari Park roller coaster on in north Antrim

(Click here to read Ben Lowry’s main column: Fellow unionists were hardly the best target for Sir Jeffrey)

The park, which was located between Ballymoney and the coast, was open between 1970 and 1997. Here is the appeal for recollections.

This is my memory: I visited twice as a boy in about the middle of that timespan, the early 1980s.

We used to go to Ballycastle each August for a family tennis tournament in those wonderful grass courts near the beach.

My recollections of that time are happy, including the annual treat of going to Barry’s in Portrush and riding on the Big Dipper.

I was born in America and had holidays there as a child and was always a fan of roller coasters. But Northern Ireland had coasters were feeble in comparison. However, while I have little memory of the safari park itself beyond its generally ambient rural atmosphere, it did for a while have a roller coaster that was larger than the Big Dipper. It is not I think the small dipper shown in the picture with this story, it was I think bigger than that – perhaps someone with a better recollection can explain! I think it wasn’t there the first time we visited, say 1982ish, and was the second, say 1984ish.

And it seemed to have been placed in a large space in the car park.

Not quite US standards but it was NI’s best such ride and that was a fine achievement of the park.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter editor