Mike Laycock and relatives visited Lightwater Valley - and found it a literally hair-raising experience

It's while you are clunking up the long, steep slope, strapped into your seat and with no chance of escape, that the questions start to flit through your mind... Clunk...was this really such a good idea? Clunk...Aren't I getting too old for this sort of caper? Clunk...Shouldn't they provide free health checks before you climb aboard?

But then you go over the top, and there's no more time to think as you are hurtled at up to 70 mph around a twisting, spiralling circuit of a track through park and woodland.

It's an exhilarating experience that makes your hair literally stand on end This is The Ultimate, the longest rollercoaster in the world. Others, like Blackpool's Big One, may be higher, but in my experience they tend to be all over in a flash.

Lightwater's "big one" never seems to end. There can be long queues for the ride, and on my last visit technical problems meant I failed to get on after a 40-minute wait.

But this time my son and I only had to queue for ten minutes - and the ride went without a hitch. In fact, the whole theme park was remarkably quiet for a fine weekend in July when I visited recently with my children and their cousins Heather and Tom, who were paying a visit to York, and we encountered few lengthy queues.

The sunny-but-not-too-hot weather was ideal. Lightwater is set in exposed, open parkland, and there's little shelter from the elements when wind and rain, or blistering heat, set in. Under blue skies and sunshine it looks quite picturesque.

But children care little of such matters. What counts are the rides. My five-year-old daughter and her cousin Heather found they were eligible for frustratingly few attractions on a previous visit to the theme park near Ripon.

Their lack of height kept ruling them out on safety grounds. The whole focus seemed to be on teenagers rather than smaller children.

But this time, things had improved greatly. A whole new range of gentler rides for little ones had been set up under the title Woody's Little Big Park, and they thought they were great - although daredevil Heather still hankered in vain after a go on The Ultimate as well.

Her brother Tom is a Formula One racing fanatic, and therefore the highlight for him was a go on the go-kart track. Just as well, as this was the one attraction where we did face a very long queue.

But we were kept amused as we waited by some of the motoring madness out on the track: drivers cutting each other up, ploughing through the tyres like Schumacher at Silverstone, and colliding with others as if it was the Dodgems.

The stressed-out guy in charge deserved the highest rate of pay at the park, as he repeatedly intervened to deliver loud rollickings to erring drivers and even ban some from the track for more serious misdemeanours. Needless to say, we behaved more like the Institute of Advanced Motorists on a day out!

Other highlights of our day included the miniature railway that takes you around the park, the Toad Hole, a bumpy ride that ends with a big splash in a pool of water, The Voyager, a new white-knuckle ride which suspends you upside down 66 feet up in the air, and the Heatwave, a massive green ball with swings attached which whirls you round at a 90-degree angle.

Another brand new attraction which I didn't have time to experience was Woody's Haunted Holiday Show, a musical adventure staged in Lightwater's new indoor theatre. We still hadn't been on everything when the last ride finished at 5.30 pm, and, with a family paying a fair chunk of the weekly budget to get in, I would advise anyone going to Lightwater to get there early to get their full money's worth.

Fact file

Lightwater Valley, Ripon.

How to get there from York: Take the A59 Harrogate road to Green Hammerton, and then B6265 to Ripon via Boroughbridge. The signposted theme park is three miles along the A6108 road from Ripon to Masham.

Opening times: Gates open 10am. Rides start 10.30am. Park closes between 5 and 6pm.

Admission: Over 1.3 metres: £11.95. Between 1 and 1.3 metres: £9.95. Under 1 metre: free. Family ticket for up to four people (including one adult): £39. Further information: 01765 635321.

PICTURE: Mike Laycock, above left, leads the screams during a ride on The Ultimate