Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
INITIALLY AN ASIAN craze, the ‘escape room’ business in Ireland appears to be booming at the moment.
The latest addition to the sector was launched in Dublin yesterday afternoon – and its backers are hoping to stand out from their competitors by offering something a little different: Ireland’s first ‘escape boat’.
“We’ve done a lot of research on escape rooms,” Ronan Brady of escapeboats.ie told TheJournal.ie at Dublin Port as he watched the soon-to-be-refitted Zorg Ella barge being lowered into the Liffey.
I’ve travelled around Europe doing a lot of them and we’ve done all the ones in Dublin – and we think there’s room for huge improvement.
Brady, who has teamed up with Irish Ship and Barge Fabrication for the new venture, hopes to have the attraction up and running on Grand Canal Quay, near the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, by spring.
They’ve spent months sourcing props for the 101-year old ship and thinking of ideas for the different rooms on board, he said.
We spent quite a while over in Holland in salvage yards finding a lot of antiquated stuff to add to the design and we’ve got a whole lot of huge, amazing props.
Our first room is based on a 1920s ship. There’s going to be a lot of action on it, there’s going to be water – things that other rooms haven’t used yet.
What are escape rooms?
A relatively new phenomenon, escape rooms first emerged in Japan around a decade ago, and have been gaining popularity in Europe more recently.
Themes vary, and can feature anything from straightforward puzzles to a mocked up zombie apocalypse. The basic principle is the same in each one, however: participants are locked in a room and must finish their task within a time limit to escape.
Here at home, companies offering escape room-type attractions have popped up in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Waterford in recent years. In the US, the craze is also gathering pace: President Barack Obama and his daughters even paid a visit to one as they holidayed in Hawaii over Christmas.
In Europe, according to Brady, Budapest has become the escape room capital – with nearly 70 such attractions now operating in the Hungarian capital.
The standards of them are amazing around Europe – some of them you’d do, you’d just be blown away.
Brady travelled to the Netherlands three times to try and locate an appropriate vessel for their escape room idea, he said.
He eventually found the Zorg Ella – a 21 metre barge originally used to transport potatoes – in the east of the country. It had been in the same family since its construction, back in 1916.
Shipped over to Dublin by ferry in recent days, the vessel was launched on Ocean Pier at the port yesterday, and was being sailed upriver last evening to be berthed temporarily near the Jeanie Johnston tall ship.
Sam Field Corbett, whose company also refitted well-known floating pub-restaurant the Cill Airne on the Dublin quays, will oversee the re-fit, and it’s hoped the first rooms will open on board the Dutch barge in April.
Brady said that once the project was opened they planned to add other rooms to their offering nearby, at other venues. Amongst other ideas, he said, they’re looking at opening one “in a tank”.
- Video editing by Nicky Ryan
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
pity the lad having to count all those people arriving for thousands of years.
We were there on a dreary day in April and the place was rockin. It was very busy with coach tours. I think we paid €12 for the 4 of us. Views are breathtaking. Well worth a visit and not the usual rip off like most places
Ummm I wonder if an irish person was ever really going to be the millionth visitor??
I was there when I was a teen and it was free about 10 years later go again with my wife and I’ve to pay for something that nature created
Does one American still count as two?
Ha ! Ha ! Ha !
Ya alot of sadness associated with those cliffs too, my sister jumped of them as they sun was setting, god rest her.
Oh no…that’s awful, RIP.
That’s grim
How convenient a American won it.ripping people off with parking charges to view a natural wonder
You’re just annoyed that a competitor had more visits than you!
Are you blaming the Americans for parking charges??
Haven’t read the full story. Would sometime be so kind as to post up cliff notes?
I visited the cliff for the first time this year. Can’t believe I waited so long. It was in the evening and we hopped that little fence to get closer to the edge. There was no one there keeping track of visitors, but it’s a lovely time to see them, when the is sun setting.
There was, ya have to buy a ticket to go in. They build a very expensive visitors center there, from what I remember a lot of money went missing and it went way over budget. Another scandal hushed up.
Your revolution is going to be the least fun revolution ever
Cliffs in Kilkeel are just as impressive and u don’t need to pay to park your car
*Kilkee*
Very commercialised now, €6 per person to park the car = €24 for 2 adults 2 children. so we just went down a little side road where you could park the car in a farmers garden for €2 posted through his letterbox.
Stunning scenery, infact Clare in general is amazing :)
Come try the walk along the cliffs from Doolin to the Visitors Centre. Spectacular and nerve tingling at any time of year. http://youtu.be/Anftlby4gSE
There’s a guy that does a guided walk all the way along, knows his stuff and a good guide. Is that you?
I prefer slieve league.
I’d love to visit them. Visited the Giant’s Causeway earlier this year and wasn’t impressed.
Am I the only one who thinks the cliffs are a bit dull?
Coastal causeway road along north antrim coast is much more interesting.
You get a 1,000,000. visitors up there ?!!!
There is a great free Cliffs of Moher audio guide app
Where is the viral video of the event? Surly they want to get some publicity outside of the Irish media…
have your say