Anywhere in Northern England or Scotland with a decent all year ice rink?

[musicposy]

I know this is the weirdest request.

We are basically going up to Scotland in a couple of weeks, right up to Skye and then working our way down the country via Ben Nevis, and Cumbria/ Lake District.

The girls ice skate and DD1 in particular is moaning terribly about going 3 weeks without skating (and I admit she will get terribly rusty). Lots of the Scottish rinks I've found seem to be winter only or only have very limited public skate sessions.

We need somewhere that is big enough that they hold proper training ice sessions as you get immediately chucked off if you start throwing yourself in the air on a public session . It must be real ice, not that plastic stuff.

If anyone lives near one can you tell me what it is like?

Bradford has one. Not been for years but it used to be good.

Dundee has one but havent been in it for years, im sure it has public sessions twice a day most days.

Blackpool

lockerbie has one so does dumfries

Aberdeen has one as well. Just recently opened again after being shut for years not been for ages. From what I remember it is big and certainly used to have real ice.

Aberdeen has a big rink.

There's also a fairly big rink inside the huge shopping centre in East Kilbride (near Glasgow). Details here.

Sheffield has a proper new ice rink that is used for sport as well as leisure I think. Think it's called ice Sheffield? Not sure if that is far enough north though?

Proper new?? I mean it is real ice and it's relatively new.

Ethelred, as a Southerner I thought you were talking proper Northern speak there!

Lots of replies! Will look into all of those, thanks!

Had a look.

Blackpool looks great but wants £45 per person to be allowed to use patch ice (that's £90 for the 2 girls before we even start - OK if you're there a year, not so good for 5 days).

Bradford also looks excellent but visitors aren't allowed on patch without their coach (I can't see persuading the coach to travel that far so my girls can practise!)

East Kilbride looks not to have any patch sessions. Aberdeen looks possible, further East than we were planning to go, but possible.

Sheffield looks amazing and it looks like you can even book their patch ice online as long as you are skating at an advanced enough level. We'd have to set our days in advance, but that's a small issue.

Dumfries is perfect for where we want to stay. The website's not very informative for serious skaters, but I'll email them and see what they say. I think that could be a good one.

I'll try contacting the rinks that appear to have rules like Blackpool and Bradford because sometimes they will relax them if you plead!

Thanks again, and any more suggestions or insider knowledge welcome!

Whitley bay is a seaside resort near Newcastle and has a nice big rink www.whitleybayicerink.co.uk/

There is only one proper ice rink in Northern Ireland. It is just outside Belfast www.theicebowl.com/home.asp

I think there are special times that the 'proper' skaters get to use the rink, one of my friends DDs does training at it.

sorry misread Northern England as Northern Ireland

\link{http://www.blackburnicearena.co.uk/\Blackburn has one} - any use? (Some way S of Dumfries!)

dundees is great we go for wee days there now and again :) didnt realise blackpool had one i know preston does is blackpools new or could i just not find it when i stayed there? did google lie to me bloody blackpool..

Murrayfield Ice Rink in Edinburgh - haven't been for years but there always used to be proper skaters alongside everyone else.

Edinburgh

X post!

I have no idea what they are like, but there are also rinks in Perth and in Inverness...

the Blackpool one is where they do the ice shows - part of the Pleasure Beach (or one of those big Blackpool organisations anyway)

This is brilliant, thank you! I've got so much further than by googling - even the proper NISA website doesn't have half the links you've put on here.

Am going to phone Blackburn as that looks promising - not much on the website but their public skate sessions don't start until 10 or 10.30am which is always a good indicator there are patch/ training sessions for serious skaters before that .

TennisFan don't mind hearing about Ireland as we are always planning our camping holidays round this wretched skating so all info will be handy one day!

ah right thank you :)