Wigwam Roller Rink

How much fun! I couldn’t believe it when I found out about this place. I had heard stories about roller rinks for years and years, but honestly didn’t think they existed any more. So imagine my surprise when I found out my friend’s hen night was going to start off in one!
There were 23 of us, and we booked the place out especially for the party. Most of us didn’t own skates, which was fine, because you can rent them here. They also give out free wrist protectors, which is good, because the last time I had a pair of skates on, I must have been about nine years old, so I went down like a ton of bricks a few times, same for most of us!
The rink played lots of great music, and we had such an excellent time. Shame there aren’t more of these in Northern Ireland, because it would be a really fun and different way of keeping fit!

This was the moment I had been looking forward to for quite some time. No, not making an absolute fool of myself (which I did, several times), but the whole rollerskating experience — the dressing up, the banter, the actual rollerskating itself… Yes, it was going to be a good night.
The rink had been privately booked from 10pm — 1am (yes, in the morning) for a friend’s 21^st birthday, with about 40 people turning up in the most spectacular outfits man has ever seen. Fluorescent just about anything, clashing prints, giant sunglasses, crazy handbands… the lot. And that was just the guys…
We were all given the choice of rollerblades or skates, so I went for the skate option, strapped them on a quickly as possible… and couldn’t move. My feet just weren’t going anywhere. Oh dear, this was going to be harder than I thought.
I eventually managed to get myself up and running (well, more crawling, but you know what I mean), screeching the entire time and deafening everyone in the process. It took me several minutes to actually get on the rink, and my friend and I were bent double laughing so much that the whole thing was undoubtedly an absolute farce. Once I was on the rink, I ended up grabbing some poor person’s hand whilst systemically screaming and laughing. When I wasn’t yelling my lungs out, I was on the floor, limbs flailing, or I was standing in the middle of the rink waiting for someone to grab onto. Those poor, poor people.
Despite being astonishingly bad at the skating part, I had a really fun night, and «craic was mighty», as we say here. Most of the other partygoers put me to shame and were fantastically good, though I’m nearly certain most, if not all, skaters fell at some stage. Yes, it was a good night indeed.
Being Northern Ireland’s only roller skating rink means that it is pretty inundated with keen skaters during its opening hours, so if its a party you’re after, you can rent the place for 2 to 3 hours instead, just as we did. That way, you’ll have the whole rink to yourself.
An absolute blast of a time. Just hope you’re better than me…