A 72-foot wooden effigy looms over Mutiny Bay, flames bursting from its shoulders as a train full of screaming riders disappears into its base for the third time. That’s Wicker Man, Alton Towers’ wooden roller coaster and the ride that ended a 22-year UK drought for the format when it opened in 2018.
This guide covers everything people search for about Wicker Man: exactly how fast it goes, when it was built, its full stats, whether the fire is real, what actually happened during its 2024 closure, which seat to pick, and the folklore behind its fire-and-wood theming.
Quick Answer
Wicker Man is Alton Towers’ wooden roller coaster in Mutiny Bay, Staffordshire, which opened on 20 March 2018. It reaches a top speed of 43.6 mph (70.2 km/h), drops about 72 feet, and runs 2,608 feet of Great Coasters International (GCI) wooden track with zero inversions. It’s a family coaster with a 120 cm height minimum, but dark theming and real fire effects give it more intensity than its stats suggest.
Stats at a Glance
Park: Alton Towers, Staffordshire, England. Location: Mutiny Bay. Manufacturer: Great Coasters International (GCI). Theming designer: Skyline Design LLC, with late-stage input from Alton Towers’ longtime ride designer John Wardley. Opened: 20 March 2018. Cost: About £16 million. Height: About 72 feet (22 m) — the tallest structure among Alton Towers’ coasters. First drop: About 72.2 feet. Top speed: 43.6 mph (70.2 km/h). Length: About 2,608 feet (795 m). Track type: Wooden. Inversions: 0. Max bank angle: 68°. Trains: 3 trains, 12 cars each, 2 riders per row (24 per train). Hourly capacity: About 952 riders. Minimum height: 120 cm (3’11”). Ride duration: About 1 minute 50 seconds of track time.
Is Wicker Man Worth Riding? Our Verdict on Alton Towers’ Wooden Coaster
On paper, 43.6 mph looks unremarkable next to Alton Towers’ launch and inversion coasters, and that’s exactly why so many people searching for Wicker Man’s speed come away disappointed before they’ve even ridden it. The number undersells the experience: enthusiast reviews consistently describe the ride as fast and furious in feel, with GCI’s signature airtime and tight turns doing more work than the top speed suggests, wrapped around fire effects and theming that no steel thrill ride at the park attempts.
Our take: Wicker Man is worth riding for almost everyone who clears the 120 cm bar, but it earns that recommendation on atmosphere and craftsmanship, not raw G-force. It suits families looking for a first “real” coaster, wooden-coaster fans ticking off a distinct ride category, and anyone who wants a themed build-up most family coasters don’t bother with. If you’re chasing pure speed or inversions, treat Wicker Man as a change of pace rather than the headline of your day — Alton Towers’ launch and inversion coasters like Nemesis, Galactica, and The Smiler will deliver the bigger numbers.
Where it can fall short: the pre-show adds a few minutes most other queues don’t, and on a short visit with long lines elsewhere, Wicker Man is easier to skip than a signature steel coaster if you’re strictly optimizing for ride count. But reviewers who’ve covered it since 2018 still rank it among the park’s most memorable rides years later, which is a rarer endorsement than a fast lap time.
Seat choice shapes the verdict too — rear rows get noticeably more of the airtime and whip that make the layout feel quicker than its stats, a pattern common across wooden coasters generally, while front-row riders trade some of that force for the clearest view of the effigy igniting ahead of the train.
- Ride it for the theming and airtime, not for bragging rights about top speed
- Pick the back row if forceful airtime matters more to you than sightlines
- Budget extra time for the walk-through pre-show before you even reach the station
- If your visit is short, prioritize Wicker Man over a repeat ride on a coaster you’ve already done
- Bring nervous younger riders through the fire-effects explanation before the queue, not during it
How Fast Is Wicker Man? Top Speed Explained
Wicker Man’s top speed is 43.6 mph (70.2 km/h), reached on the ride’s main drop shortly after the train leaves the station and dives past the wooden effigy for the first time. That figure is modest next to Alton Towers’ steel thrill rides, but GCI’s wooden-coaster airtime makes the drops and lateral turns feel quicker than the number on paper.
Because Wicker Man is a family wooden coaster rather than a hypercoaster, its speed comes almost entirely from gravity off a single chain lift hill — there’s no launch and no second lift. The 43.6 mph figure is the same speed cited by Alton Towers as the ride’s official top speed.
When Was Wicker Man Built? A Full Construction Timeline
Construction began on 28 November 2016 with the demolition of Alton Towers’ former Flume water ride, which the new coaster was built to replace. Timber for the track started arriving on site on 4 May 2017, the lift hill topped out in early July 2017, and track sections were going up by October 2017 — a build sequence documented in detail by fan sites that tracked the project throughout.
During development the project was known internally by its codename, ‘Secret Weapon 8′ (SW8) — part of Alton Towers’ long-running tradition of secrecy around major new rides — before the Wicker Man name was officially revealed in January 2018 via an eight-day countdown. The ride opened to the public on 20 March 2018, three days later than planned due to weather. At a construction cost of around £16 million, it became the first wooden roller coaster built anywhere in the UK in 22 years, and one of the first wooden coasters in the world to combine timber track with real, integrated fire effects.
Meet Big Bob: The Ride Experience
The ride’s central theming piece is a giant wooden effigy nicknamed ‘Big Bob,’ carved with two faces — a calm, god-like human face on one side and a more sinister ram’s head, the Wicker Ram, on the other. Riders pass beneath and through Big Bob’s base three separate times over the course of the layout, each pass triggering real flame effects that burst from its shoulders alongside projected fire, smoke, and an original film score.
The pre-show, set inside a wicker dome before the queue reaches the station, introduces the story that frames the whole ride. It’s a slower build than most coaster queues, but it sets up the fire-and-folklore atmosphere that carries through the entire ride. The coaster segment itself mixes GCI’s signature airtime hills with a top bank angle of 68 degrees; including the walk-through pre-show, the full guest experience runs several minutes longer than the ride itself.
Is the Fire Real? How Wicker Man’s Flame Effects Work
Yes — the flames that burst from Big Bob’s shoulders as the train passes are real, propane-fed fire effects, not just projections, though projected flame and smoke are layered on top for extra impact. Alton Towers has confirmed the wooden structure is built from fire-resistant treated timber specifically engineered to withstand repeated exposure to the flame effects without igniting.
That engineering was tested in July 2024, when a foreign object on the track caused localized damage and visible smoke, prompting a precautionary closure. Alton Towers confirmed the fire-resistant treatment prevented the issue from developing into a fire, and Wicker Man reopened on 17 August 2024 after repairs and inspection. It’s the kind of isolated mechanical issue any major coaster can have, and the ride has operated normally since.
The Story Behind Wicker Man: The Beornen Legend
Wicker Man’s backstory centers on the Beornen, a fictional group invented by Merlin’s creative team specifically for the ride rather than drawn from any real folklore or from the 1973 cult horror film of the same name. The story goes that the Beornen are a secretive community living in the woods around Alton Towers who’ve rejected modern life to worship nature, and who periodically ‘choose’ visitors to be carried into the effigy as part of a ritual rite of passage.
The connection to the 1973 film is thematic rather than literal — Alton Towers has said the ride isn’t based on the movie, but the shared name and wicker-effigy imagery are the link most adult riders make anyway. The pre-show inside the wicker dome lays out the Beornen’s ritual before guests board the ‘works train’ that carries them into the effigy three times.
Is Wicker Man Scary? Who the Ride Is Really For
Wicker Man clears the low 120 cm height bar, so it’s technically classed as a family coaster — but reviewers consistently flag that the dark pre-show, tight smoke-filled tunnels, and sudden flame bursts give it a genuine intensity most family rides don’t attempt. It’s common for younger children to find the walkthrough and fire effects more unsettling than the coaster drops themselves.
For most riders aged around 8 and up who don’t mind a bit of theatrical darkness, it plays as a thrilling but manageable introduction to wooden coasters. If you’re bringing younger or more nervous riders, it’s worth describing the flames and the walk-through beforehand rather than letting the pre-show be a surprise — the coaster itself, with no inversions and moderate speed, is milder than the theming makes it feel.
Best Seat on Wicker Man: Front Row or Back Row?
Enthusiast consensus points firmly to the back row for the strongest ride: GCI’s wooden layouts whip the rear cars harder through the airtime hills and turns, and riders consistently describe the back of Wicker Man as feeling like a different ride from the middle rows, with noticeably stronger airtime and whip through the turnaround without being any rougher than the front.
If you’re more interested in the theming and fire effects than the forces, the front row gives you the clearest view of Big Bob igniting ahead of the train, since the flame bursts and smoke are timed to the lead car’s position. Middle rows are generally considered the weakest spot on the train — not bad, just the least distinct version of the ride.
Queue Times, Fastrack & Accessibility
Wicker Man doesn’t currently offer a single-rider queue, so solo riders join the standard line like everyone else; as one of Mutiny Bay’s most popular rides, it’s worth riding early in the day or in the last hour before close when queues are shortest. It’s included in Fastrack Silver, and individual Fastrack tickets for Wicker Man alone are also sold at the park when available.
For accessibility, Wicker Man has a separate queue route for Ride Access Pass holders, and wheelchair users can ride if they’re able to transfer into a seat with assistance, though only one wheelchair user per group is permitted for safety reasons. Current queue times, Fastrack pricing, and the full accessibility guide are published on the official Alton Towers Wicker Man ride page, the best source to check before you visit.
Awards and How Wicker Man Compares to Other Wooden Coasters
Wicker Man placed 5th for Best New Ride at Amusement Today’s 2018 Golden Ticket Awards and has remained a fixture in the outlet’s annual Top Wood Coasters rankings since — a strong showing for a mid-sized family coaster rather than a record-breaking hypercoaster. Its real claim to fame is being one of the first wooden coasters anywhere to combine timber track with integrated, repeatable fire effects, a combination GCI hadn’t built before and few parks have attempted since.
Compared with GCI’s other wooden coasters worldwide, Wicker Man is a mid-length, moderate-speed layout — its strength is the airtime-per-foot of GCI’s signature hills and the theming wrapped around them, not outright size. At Alton Towers specifically, its 72-foot structure makes it the tallest thing at the resort, taller even than the steel loops of Nemesis Reborn or The Smiler, even though its coaster stats are modest next to those rides.
Over 3,700 pieces, a real vertical loop and a working chain lift. Display it on a shelf in the coaster room.
Rub-on sunscreen that fits in a pocket — reapply in the queue without greasy hands on the lap bar.
Folds into its own pocket. Pop it on when the storm rolls in and the rides reopen to short lines.
Wicker Man roller coaster FAQs
Is the fire on Wicker Man real?
Yes. Real propane-fed flames burst from the effigy’s shoulders each time the train passes beneath it, combined with projected fire and smoke effects; the structure itself is built from fire-resistant treated timber designed to withstand the repeated flame bursts.
How tall is Wicker Man?
The ride’s wooden structure stands about 72 feet (22 m) tall, making it the tallest structure among Alton Towers’ coasters, and its first drop is about 72.2 feet.
What happened to Wicker Man in 2024?
On 26 July 2024, a foreign object on the track caused localized damage and visible smoke, prompting a precautionary closure. Alton Towers confirmed the fire-resistant structure prevented the issue from becoming a fire, and the ride reopened on 17 August 2024 after repairs.
Is Wicker Man based on the 1973 film?
Not directly. The ride’s Beornen storyline was created by Merlin’s in-house creative team specifically for Alton Towers; the park has said it isn’t an adaptation of the 1973 film, though the shared name and wicker-effigy imagery invite the comparison.
Is there a single rider queue for Wicker Man?
No, Wicker Man doesn’t offer a single-rider line, so solo riders use the standard queue.
Is Wicker Man wheelchair accessible?
Riders who can transfer into a seat with assistance can experience Wicker Man, and the ride has a dedicated access route for Ride Access Pass holders, though only one wheelchair user per group is permitted.
Which row has the best airtime on Wicker Man?
The back row, by enthusiast consensus — it delivers noticeably stronger airtime and whip through the turns than the middle rows, without feeling any rougher than the front.
Is Wicker Man scary for kids?
It clears a low 120 cm height minimum, but the dark pre-show, smoke-filled tunnels and sudden flame bursts are more intense than most family coasters; most kids around 8 and up handle it fine if you describe the fire effects beforehand.
Is Wicker Man worth riding if you’ve already done bigger thrill coasters?
Yes — its appeal is theming and wooden-coaster airtime, not raw speed, so it offers something Alton Towers’ steel thrill rides don’t duplicate.
Is Wicker Man worth the queue at Alton Towers?
For most visitors, yes, given its lasting reputation as one of the park’s most memorable rides, but it’s reasonable to deprioritize it on a short visit if queues are long elsewhere.
How does Wicker Man compare to Alton Towers’ other coasters for intensity?
It’s slower than the park’s biggest launch and inversion coasters, like Nemesis, Galactica, and The Smiler, with its intensity coming more from the dark theming and fire effects than from sheer ride mechanics.
Should Wicker Man be a priority on a first visit to Alton Towers?
It’s worth building into a first visit as a distinctive themed ride unlike anything else at the park, though riders chasing the biggest stats should treat it as a complement to, not a replacement for, Alton Towers’ steel headliners.
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