Eden Project Zip Wire Experience
The eden project zip wire lets you soar 660 metres across the Biomes at speeds up to 60mph, suspended 100 feet above the quarry floor. This exhilarating aerial adventure combines Cornwall's largest zip line with spectacular views over the rainforest and Mediterranean domes. Eden project zip wire tours include full safety briefing, harness fitting, and professional instruction from trained guides who operate one of Britain's most scenic canopy rides.
In 2008, a disused china clay quarry became the world's largest indoor rainforest. By 2012, a steel cable stretched 660 metres across that pit, transforming vertical geology into horizontal motion.
The Eden Project Skywire was engineered by Hangloose Adventure to exploit the site's dramatic topography — a descent of nearly 100 metres from launch platform to landing zone. Riders reach speeds approaching 60 miles per hour, suspended in a prone harness that mimics freefall. The attraction capitalised on Cornwall's sudden hunger for high-adrenaline tourism, a sector that had been almost non-existent in the county before zip wire installations proliferated in the early 2010s.
The Skywire crosses directly over the Mediterranean and Rainforest Biomes, two geodesic domes that house more than a million plants from fifty countries. Below, visitors wander through banana groves and olive terraces while zip wire riders trace a parabola overhead. The juxtaposition is deliberate — Eden's founders intended the site to layer experiences vertically, compressing ecological zones into a single afternoon. The zip wire was added seven years after the biomes opened, a recognition that education alone could not sustain visitor numbers. Adrenaline became a secondary curriculum.
The launch platform sits at the quarry's western rim, 100 metres above the pit floor. Riders clip into a dual-cable system — the upper cable bears weight, the lower stabilises rotation. The harness forces a face-down posture, eliminating the upright swing of older zip wire designs. Flight time averages 60 seconds. Wind conditions permitting, operations run continuously from 10:00 to 17:00, processing riders at five-minute intervals. The landing zone occupies a terraced garden near the Core education building, where participants are unclipped and escorted back to ground level.
Cornwall's clay pits were abandoned in the 1990s after a century of kaolin extraction. Eden Project co-founder Tim Smit chose Bodelva specifically for its degraded landscape — a demonstration that post-industrial sites could be regenerated without erasing their scars. The Skywire extends that philosophy into recreation. The quarry walls remain exposed, white and raw, framing the ride.
1 hr
