Sheffield is located in the foothills of the Peak District, in the valley of the River Don. This natural beauty has been conserved in the city planning, with 250 parks and 4.5 million trees within the city limits. But when it comes to a bungee jump experience like no other, the background isn’t the natural landscape but it’s industrial heritage.

In the suburb of Templeborough an enormous steelworks was constructed as became the global capital of steel production. The hangar-like structure of this factory was over a mile long and at its height had over 10,000 workers and churned out almost 2 million tons of steel every year. This behemoth continued working until the 1990s and has since been partially repurposed to house a museum, Magna, and a truly death defying activity experience. If you want to test yourself to the limits, we can’t think of a better way than by daring yourself to do the only indoor bungee jump in the world.

What’s it like to do this experience?

When you think of bungee jumping, you probably imagine a canyon, or a bridge, with a drop below in open air above a river or treetops. What you’ll get in Sheffield is a post-industrial steampunk fever dream: the vast interior of a mega-factory, billowing dry ice, spotlights, techno music and digital screens. It’s here, in this unreal environment, that you can stand on a high platform, heart in mouth, and jump into the void - before a bungee cable at your waist or ankles breaks your fall.

To get to that point, you’ll be led across the semi-dark factory floor and up ladders, passing old installations and structures leftover from its days as one of the largest industrial plants. Equipment and safety checks will be carried out on the jump platform and then it’s just you, standing above the darkness - there’s a reason they call this The Abyss. Are you brave enough to dive into it?

Experiencias con las que se puede combinar

The Templeborough complex is enormous. While this experience occupies a central tower, there’s plenty of room left over in the hangar for more thrills. The 4 activities all involve testing your courage against gravity, whether by jumping, sliding or dropping.

- Zip Wire: when they decommissioned the old steelwords, some of the machinery was just too big and heavy to remove from the factory. May as well put these relics to good use, right? This is what’s been done with a 100 ton, 70ft tall crane which serves as the starting point for a zipline - the finish point is 250ft away. On your way down the wire you’ll pass old boiling pots that were used for molten steel, while your friends and family can follow your trajectory from a walkway that runs the whole length of the line. This might not require as much courage as the bungee jump, but it’ll give you a new perspective on factory work. Why not treat it as a warm up for the main, death defying event?

- Abseil: if you have an appetite for heights but you want more control than is possible in the bungee jump, abseiling is for you. First you’ll climb up 150ft of steel ladders to the platform, before starting to lower yourself down using ropes. But this isn’t like abseiling you’ve seen in the mountains - there’s no rock face to support your feet in this activity. Instead it’s a free abseil, where the only thing holding you in the air is the rope!

- The Drop Free-fall Experience: this unique activity is similar to the bungee jump, but without any of the dangling about on the end of the bungee cord after you’ve jumped. To complete The Drop, you step off a high platform and experience a few heartstopping moments of free-fall, that means that the only force working on your body is the pull of gravity, before the specially designed rope system kicks in and reduces your speed quickly but smoothly. By the time you’ve slowed to a stop, you’re already at ground level and can calmly step away from the drop zone - if your knees haven’t gone weak because of the adrenaline!

The bungee jump and 3 extra activities can be bought individually, but daredevils who are keen to try more can save money by purchasing packages that include multiple activities.

Requirements to do this activity

Bearing in mind the challenges involved in completing an indoor bungee jump in an old Sheffield steelworks, it’s unsurprising that there are some rules about who can jump. First of all, . This is a standard for all across the UK and is based on the idea of “informed participation” - you need to know what you’re signing up for with this kind of experience!

The other specs refer to your body type. The equipment and installations in any kind of bungee jump have to operate with safety margins, and this is perhaps even more important in an enclosed indoor space like the Magna centre in Sheffield. For that reason, you need to weigh less than 120kg, or 18.9 stone

Is this a safe experience?

In a word, yes. It complies with UK regulations to make sure that your jump is a safe and enjoyable experience. These regulations cover the equipment that you’ll use - including waist or ankle harness, ropes and fixtures - and mandate a system of redundancy - the presence of back-up systems that mean that the failure of one piece of equipment doesn’t lead to the failure of the whole. All of this means that you don’t need to worry about being safe, just about having the courage to jump.

We imagine that you’ll want to invite some friends and family to watch you jump, so that they have to believe you when you talk about your gravity defying experience. Keep in mind that this jump takes place in a disused factory in the Northern city, and so they should dress appropriately. Closed toe shoes are a must, and don’t expect central heating in this vast space! The same applies to you, though you’ll probably want to take it off for the jump, have some warm layers with you for before and after.

Don’t think twice - or you might change your mind! Reservebun today and boast about it for the rest of your life.