Treetop Trek celebrates big milestones in the Lake District!

Time flies when you’re having fun!

Treetop Trek celebrates 10th anniversary this June

The team at Treetop Trek, the award-winning Windermere-based aerial adventure company has a lot to celebrate this year, as they mark a decade of flying high AND have just past the huge milestone of welcoming over half-a-million visitors at their iconic Brockhole location.

Over 500,000 fearless adventurers ranging from age 5 to 95 have been challenged to swing, climb, and fly their way through the ancient woodland canopy on the shores of Windermere since opening in June 2012.

It all started when founder, Mike Turner was inspired to create a high ropes adventure that the whole family could enjoy together, after struggling to find activities suitable for his own young family when on holiday.

Mike brought innovation to the high-ropes space as he pioneered an ultra-safe continuous belay system that enables participants to remain attached to the safety cable the whole way round the course. Thanks to this innovation, Treetop Trek was the first high-ropes course in the UK to welcome children as young as 5 years.

To achieve the vision of a shared family experience, the course design also features a thrilling and first of its kind, 250m triple zip wire, enabling 3 participants to zip together.

Mike Turner comments, “We are thrilled to be celebrating our 10th anniversary at Brockhole, it’s a great achievement for a local business like us and we have absolutely loved welcoming visitors from far and wide over the last decade!”

Treetop Trek soon took off and quickly expanded with the addition of ‘Climb & Zip’ and ‘Treetop Net’ activities, along with opening locations in Manchester and Yorkshire to compliment the flagship Brockhole site.

Mike says a key highlight was bringing ‘Parcabout Adventure’ to the UK in 2014.

Parcabout, meaning ‘park of ropes’ in old Breton, was named Treetop Nets and used rope expertise, borrowed from sailing and fishing, to create something really unique for children and opened up the exciting treetop experience to children as young as 3 years.

“Bringing Treetop Nets to the UK was an incredible project. The nets are such a wonderful, enormously fun way to enjoy the high trees without the need for a harness and are particularly suited to less confident visitors and those with additional needs.”

Safely suspended between the trees, Treetop Net features huge, bouncy net trampolines, with giant ball parks, super-fast slides, aerial walkways and tunnels through the tree canopy. All fully enclosed and allowing juniors to run free.

Making the outdoors accessible to all ages and abilities is at the heart of the attraction, with the company investing more than £50,000 in its facilities to improve accessibility including an innovative new braking-system at the bottom of their zip-line for low impact landings, allowing wheelchair users and those with physical disabilities to also experience their thrilling treetop adventure.

The team at Treetop Trek work in close partnership with the Bendrigg Trust to make their course more accessible and have all undergone Disability Awareness Training.

Mike says, “Getting outdoors and experiencing nature is so good for your mind and body, however we know many people with disabilities don’t get the same opportunities to access outdoor adventure. So we are proud to work with our partners at the Bendrigg Trust, to learn and receive specialist advice on how we can constantly evolve our course to welcome all ages and abilities.”

But Treetop Trek’s success wouldn’t be possible without the dedicated team who make it a fantastic experience for visitors.

“Receiving the 2015 ‘Gold Winner’ of the National Tourism Experience of the Year at the Visit England Awards for Excellence just three years after launching is a testament to our amazing team who help to make visitors feel safe and have an incredible outdoor experience up in the treetops every single day,” adds Mike.

10 years on and Treetops remains a 5-star rated visitor attraction!