Whilst undertaking work as part of the annual maintenance programme at Haven Holidays Primrose Valley Holiday Park we took time out to experience the thrills and spills of the Crazy Caterpillar fun ride.

Insideout recently undertook a maintenance project at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena. It is built on a natural quarry rock face and hosts international climbing competitions. Insideout was tasked with replacing worn sections of track on the impressive aerial assault course - the highest in the UK, over the largest climbing arena in Europe! The course is situated at 30m above the arena floor (more than 5 floors high) and the climbing walls and boulders looked very small from our birds eye view.

Insideout undertakes a regular review of processes and procedures ranging from external testing of our own products to ensuring all critical components used on our builds are certified. The picture illustrates a test being conducted on a swaged eye with a hard thimble. The product failed at a massive 9.1 tons! That's more than a male African elephant weighs!

Insideout recently constructed a team challenge course for Thames Young Mariners. The course encourages young people to work as part of a team and helps them to develop important life skills. The course has many challenges that help participants learn from their experiences and gradually improve their performance. This learning cycle - do-review-apply - is a form of action research where they are both the Guinea pig and the researcher responsible for their own learning.

Inside Out Ropes Courses did a great job on building our high ropes courses in the trees here at Nevis Range Mountain Experience. They helped do last minute design changes and built 2 exciting but safe courses culminating in 100m zip. The staff were hardworking and friendly, they took great effort to make things look good and were very professional as well as providing a good value quotation.

Marian Austin, Managing Director, Nevis Range Experiences

We've recently worked with a ropes course at the Bristol Zoo called "Zooropia!". We upgraded the safety system to a continuous Saferoller system enabling clients to be clipped in from the moment they leave the ground until they return to the ground at the end of the course.

This unique course allows you to swing next to the Zoo's most popular inhabitants such as the gibbons, gorillas and lemurs. It was an un-nerving experience being keenly watched by the gorillas as we constructed the course!

After the conversion, the client reported that operartion of the course was smoother, leading to greater turnover.

For more details of this innovative ropes course visit the Zooropia web site.

A ropes course is a facility used for education, recreation or a combination of both.

It enables participants to accept challenges and develop personal and social skills through practicing new behaviours in a framework of safety and support. They might involve the participant in climbing, leaping , swinging and traversing elements, individually or whilst working with others.

A Ropes course can range from a single activity to numerous different elements and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They range from walls and towers to cow’s tail courses and continuous belay trails; Multi-activity structures to single elements constructed between trees.

Indeed, many structures that come under the auspices of ropes courses have little, if any, rope used in their construction. All ropes courses require a varying degree of supervision depending on their nature. A ropes course is a powerful tool for learning and recreation that can enable your clients to realise they are capable of achieving more than they think.