Burniel
Mega Poster
Emerald Park - 12th April 2026
Just over a decade ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Emerald Park (or as it was, Tayto Park) while on a family holiday. It was the opening year of Cú Chulainn, and we managed to visit on a day quiet enough to lap the thing. It became my first airtime-focused cred, the first ride I ever properly marathoned, and a major stepping stone in turning my interest in coasters from a passing teenage fad into a longer-term fascination. I've often thought of returning, but for one reason or another had yet to make it happen, so I figured I'd knock it out early this season to prevent it from slipping yet another year.
Our schedule had us visiting on a Sunday, which came with its challenges. Perhaps understandably for a fairly rural line, no route 105 bus leaving Dublin will get you to the park for anywhere close to opening time on a Sunday. We found our only option was to stay at the other end of the route, Drogheda (a nice place, as it turns out), where currently a bus leaves at 9:30 on Sundays, getting to the park about 10 minutes after opening. It worked, and we got to see some bits of Ireland we wouldn't have otherwise, but if I were to do a weekend trip like this again I'd probably either avoid doing the park on the Sunday or hire a car instead.
It was immediately obvious from the lack of cars and people around the entrance that tactical planning wasn't going to be required to hit all the creds in the 6 hours we had available, so we abandoned shameful thoughts of rushing to the lower-capacity family coasters and jumped straight into a reunion (for me) with an old friend...
As sadly seems to happen with many rides of its type, the reputation of Cú Chulainn has slowly deteriorated over the years. Between the reported roughness and me having ridden so much more since 2015, it seemed inevitable I'd enjoy it less this time around... and I did, but not by as much as I'd feared. The ride has a killer first drop, fun layout, and a level of roughness that, with the possible exception of the overbank, is entirely tolerable and in some ways adds to that wooden coaster feeling. It's fallen a fair few places now that the rose tinted glasses are off, but I'd still happily list it in my top 25%.
With nostalgia fed, we settled down to business. Several junior coasters have been added to bolster the lineup since I was first here, and first up was Flight School (#154), a decent little Zierer with a reasonable attempt at arline theming.
Then Dino Dash (#155) is a surprisingly good family coaster with surprisingly good theming. Apparently this has the same layout as one I did at Energylandia two years ago... it's weirdly satisfying getting to a level of travel where I'll occasionally bump into layouts I didn't even realise I'd already done, getting the chance to experience them in an entirely different context. It was fun, and with this being the park's newest coaster outside of Tír na nÓg, it's a cool example of the park's progression in theming effort and quality.
To earn the mildly embarassing +1 on Ladybird Loop (#156), we trekked through a lot of largely under-used space and non-operational climbing apperatus to the park's isolated children's area. A redevelopment here seems like an obvious next investment; a large, modern, and well-marketed family area would surely be a guaranteed attendance booster. For now, the area feels a bit like a lifeless fairground, though the lack of crowds on this particular day probably didn't help. In any case, we got our SBF tick and left.
With the spreadsheet taken care of, we hiked back to the entrance area and beyond, to the park's newest and best area - Tír na nÓg.
Somehow we took a wrong turn on entry and ended up doing Quest (#157) first. Once again, a cloned family coaster I'd seen previously at Energylandia, and once again Emerald Park did it better. This is already one of the stronger family boomerang layouts I've done (in that it actually goes somewhere), but the presentation and occasional interaction with Fianna really knocks it up a notch.
And speaking of presentation and interaction...
Fianna Force (#158) is my first of the two Vekoma STCs built to date. Unlike the abominations of this genre they used to build, this modern interpretation was a sheer pleasure and easily the best ride in the park. Intense, whippy, perfectly smooth, well presented, and appealing to a broad audience, Na Fianna was perhaps the perfect choice for Emerald Park's first steel thrill coaster. Diving around the well landscaped area and darting through the Quest station, all in a seat so freeing you can lean into the elements without fear of discomfort, the experience is incredibly re-rideable. With the wait on our visit never surpassing two trains, we amassed no fewer than 17 laps throughout the day, covering between us almost every seat - take front or back left if you can, otherwise there's little difference.
It's harder than I expected to compare the ride to other inverts I've done. Certainly it doesn't top Nemesis or Montu, but it probably is better than at least one of the lower-rated B&M inverts I've ridden. I do think the STC has more to give, as Na Fianna definitely peters out a bit towards the end, where a snappy final inversion or similar would have been glorious. But even if this were addressed, the two models' experiences are very different, offering a dilemma of raw power vs elegance. I imagine its position in people's invert lists varies a lot as a result.
Also a note on Tír na nÓg in general - what a fantastic piece of theme park area design. Two intertwined modern Vekomas will always be a spectacle, but everything in this area impressed me, from the path layout, to the fact there's a viewing area for the coasters, to the unexpected supporting flat ride (Merlin could never). It's a brilliant step for this small park to have taken, and a great statement of intent for future expansion.
We took a small break from coastering just before lunch to try out the four other rides of significance that were operational. Two of the thrill flats, The Rotator and Air Race, I had ridden in 2015, though I'm sure the former used to do a full rotation. Endeavour was my first new style Enterprise and I was surprised by how similar it felt to the original ones, though for some reason I prefer being in the cages. Then you have Viking Voyage, a water ride that was much longer and wetter than we first realised, but pretty decent aside from a very noticeable lack of audio. It's not a bad supporting lineup really, though a dark ride would be a great addition in future.
With it being such a quiet day, our lunch came from the park's main Lodge restaurant, as it was seemingly the only place open serving anything other than candy floss. Aside from the annoyance of it being about as far from everything else in the park as possible, it was pretty reasonable for somewhere to sit down and eat "real food" with actual cutlery - though I stand by my usual preference to grab something quicker (and cheaper) from a to-go kiosk when available.
Our afternoon was a joy, filled with Fianna re-rides occasionally punctuated by singular laps on Chulainn (it's great, but once an hour was enough for us), until we left to catch our flight home around 4. Our bus experience home was slightly less successful, as while the trusty 105 got us to our change point in Ashbourne, the scheduled airport bus we were connecting onto was not on the live update screens. This led to us hedging our bets with a non-airport bus that would at least get us further down the line in case we got stranded, only for us to get completely lost when the driver ignored our bell and skipped our intended stop, taking us entirely off-route. The luxury of modern travel meant a simple Uber saved the day and we had no issues making our flight, though I wish I knew if that airport bus ever did run.
So is Emerald Park worth the effort then? I'd say so. It's a small park, and some of the older areas need some work, but they're definitely moving in the right direction. I can see how some day trip it from the UK, but if that's not for you, as it wasn't for me, combining it with a day in Dublin makes for a cracking weeked away. I doubt I'll return before the next Fianna-level investment, but I'll be keen to do so when that comes.
Just over a decade ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Emerald Park (or as it was, Tayto Park) while on a family holiday. It was the opening year of Cú Chulainn, and we managed to visit on a day quiet enough to lap the thing. It became my first airtime-focused cred, the first ride I ever properly marathoned, and a major stepping stone in turning my interest in coasters from a passing teenage fad into a longer-term fascination. I've often thought of returning, but for one reason or another had yet to make it happen, so I figured I'd knock it out early this season to prevent it from slipping yet another year.
Our schedule had us visiting on a Sunday, which came with its challenges. Perhaps understandably for a fairly rural line, no route 105 bus leaving Dublin will get you to the park for anywhere close to opening time on a Sunday. We found our only option was to stay at the other end of the route, Drogheda (a nice place, as it turns out), where currently a bus leaves at 9:30 on Sundays, getting to the park about 10 minutes after opening. It worked, and we got to see some bits of Ireland we wouldn't have otherwise, but if I were to do a weekend trip like this again I'd probably either avoid doing the park on the Sunday or hire a car instead.
It was immediately obvious from the lack of cars and people around the entrance that tactical planning wasn't going to be required to hit all the creds in the 6 hours we had available, so we abandoned shameful thoughts of rushing to the lower-capacity family coasters and jumped straight into a reunion (for me) with an old friend...
As sadly seems to happen with many rides of its type, the reputation of Cú Chulainn has slowly deteriorated over the years. Between the reported roughness and me having ridden so much more since 2015, it seemed inevitable I'd enjoy it less this time around... and I did, but not by as much as I'd feared. The ride has a killer first drop, fun layout, and a level of roughness that, with the possible exception of the overbank, is entirely tolerable and in some ways adds to that wooden coaster feeling. It's fallen a fair few places now that the rose tinted glasses are off, but I'd still happily list it in my top 25%.
With nostalgia fed, we settled down to business. Several junior coasters have been added to bolster the lineup since I was first here, and first up was Flight School (#154), a decent little Zierer with a reasonable attempt at arline theming.
Then Dino Dash (#155) is a surprisingly good family coaster with surprisingly good theming. Apparently this has the same layout as one I did at Energylandia two years ago... it's weirdly satisfying getting to a level of travel where I'll occasionally bump into layouts I didn't even realise I'd already done, getting the chance to experience them in an entirely different context. It was fun, and with this being the park's newest coaster outside of Tír na nÓg, it's a cool example of the park's progression in theming effort and quality.
To earn the mildly embarassing +1 on Ladybird Loop (#156), we trekked through a lot of largely under-used space and non-operational climbing apperatus to the park's isolated children's area. A redevelopment here seems like an obvious next investment; a large, modern, and well-marketed family area would surely be a guaranteed attendance booster. For now, the area feels a bit like a lifeless fairground, though the lack of crowds on this particular day probably didn't help. In any case, we got our SBF tick and left.
With the spreadsheet taken care of, we hiked back to the entrance area and beyond, to the park's newest and best area - Tír na nÓg.
Somehow we took a wrong turn on entry and ended up doing Quest (#157) first. Once again, a cloned family coaster I'd seen previously at Energylandia, and once again Emerald Park did it better. This is already one of the stronger family boomerang layouts I've done (in that it actually goes somewhere), but the presentation and occasional interaction with Fianna really knocks it up a notch.
And speaking of presentation and interaction...
Fianna Force (#158) is my first of the two Vekoma STCs built to date. Unlike the abominations of this genre they used to build, this modern interpretation was a sheer pleasure and easily the best ride in the park. Intense, whippy, perfectly smooth, well presented, and appealing to a broad audience, Na Fianna was perhaps the perfect choice for Emerald Park's first steel thrill coaster. Diving around the well landscaped area and darting through the Quest station, all in a seat so freeing you can lean into the elements without fear of discomfort, the experience is incredibly re-rideable. With the wait on our visit never surpassing two trains, we amassed no fewer than 17 laps throughout the day, covering between us almost every seat - take front or back left if you can, otherwise there's little difference.
It's harder than I expected to compare the ride to other inverts I've done. Certainly it doesn't top Nemesis or Montu, but it probably is better than at least one of the lower-rated B&M inverts I've ridden. I do think the STC has more to give, as Na Fianna definitely peters out a bit towards the end, where a snappy final inversion or similar would have been glorious. But even if this were addressed, the two models' experiences are very different, offering a dilemma of raw power vs elegance. I imagine its position in people's invert lists varies a lot as a result.
Also a note on Tír na nÓg in general - what a fantastic piece of theme park area design. Two intertwined modern Vekomas will always be a spectacle, but everything in this area impressed me, from the path layout, to the fact there's a viewing area for the coasters, to the unexpected supporting flat ride (Merlin could never). It's a brilliant step for this small park to have taken, and a great statement of intent for future expansion.
We took a small break from coastering just before lunch to try out the four other rides of significance that were operational. Two of the thrill flats, The Rotator and Air Race, I had ridden in 2015, though I'm sure the former used to do a full rotation. Endeavour was my first new style Enterprise and I was surprised by how similar it felt to the original ones, though for some reason I prefer being in the cages. Then you have Viking Voyage, a water ride that was much longer and wetter than we first realised, but pretty decent aside from a very noticeable lack of audio. It's not a bad supporting lineup really, though a dark ride would be a great addition in future.
With it being such a quiet day, our lunch came from the park's main Lodge restaurant, as it was seemingly the only place open serving anything other than candy floss. Aside from the annoyance of it being about as far from everything else in the park as possible, it was pretty reasonable for somewhere to sit down and eat "real food" with actual cutlery - though I stand by my usual preference to grab something quicker (and cheaper) from a to-go kiosk when available.
Our afternoon was a joy, filled with Fianna re-rides occasionally punctuated by singular laps on Chulainn (it's great, but once an hour was enough for us), until we left to catch our flight home around 4. Our bus experience home was slightly less successful, as while the trusty 105 got us to our change point in Ashbourne, the scheduled airport bus we were connecting onto was not on the live update screens. This led to us hedging our bets with a non-airport bus that would at least get us further down the line in case we got stranded, only for us to get completely lost when the driver ignored our bell and skipped our intended stop, taking us entirely off-route. The luxury of modern travel meant a simple Uber saved the day and we had no issues making our flight, though I wish I knew if that airport bus ever did run.
So is Emerald Park worth the effort then? I'd say so. It's a small park, and some of the older areas need some work, but they're definitely moving in the right direction. I can see how some day trip it from the UK, but if that's not for you, as it wasn't for me, combining it with a day in Dublin makes for a cracking weeked away. I doubt I'll return before the next Fianna-level investment, but I'll be keen to do so when that comes.