Time Capsule

I’m a huge fan of the Time Capsule. I love the flumes, the rapids, the wave machine, the slides… and now I love taking my son and niece here for a day out. I’ve loved swimming as long as I can remember and this love seems to have been passed down to my little one. Although he’d be quite happy splashing around in a baby pool with no other form of entertainment, the Time Capsule is next level swimming fun!
Since the refurb they’ve put a massive play area with «tippy bucket» and water guns for the little ones. They have a kids slide and a warm baby paddling pool with a massive palm tree in the middle too for littler swimmers. The slides in the adult pool aren’t that huge either. My son and niece loved these which meant we weren’t limited to a tiny area during our last visit.
The reason this isn’t 5 star is that they only open every area of the pool when it’s a «peak» time — i.e. when it is absolutely rammed with bigger children. It’s forgivable, but it’s not well advertised and led to a completely wasted trip the last time we visited.
I’ve learned from it though and moved on. It’s worth taking the little ones swimming on a busy day to see them so happy, have fun ourselves, and most importantly, leave with very sleepy, quiet and calm toddlers.

Once upon a time I spent my weekends leisurely reading the weekend papers, brunching, shopping for something other than packed lunch fodder, drinking cocktails and/​or copious amounts of wine and luxuriating in my bed until the pm dot had been on the alarm clock for hours. Then I had kids, typing the previous sentence has made me question why but here is not the place for that angst.
Nowadays, when I’m not manically running around a supermarket trying to find the right bread or ‘the orange cheese because the white one tastes funny’ you might find me in the dimension of hell that was too dark for even Dante. The swimming pool.
The Time Capsule takes swimming pool hell to a whole new level with wave machines, rapids, flumes, jacuzzis and a weird play-​park when gangs of cozzie clad brats try to dump buckets of freezing water on anyone over 5 foot.
It might be clear from what I have written that I am never going to be a fan of this activity but I am going to be fair and make it clear that the Time Capsule does what it does well. The changing area is clean, with plenty of lockers and several family sized changing rooms. Which does ease the pain of standing freezing cold in a dripping wet swimming costume trying to find your daughters knickers. Trust me in a normal sized changing cubicle this is justification for child abandonment.
The pool itself is a decent temperature and if you like trying new inventive ways of encouraging drowning it is great fun. I don’t think they allow you to escape by drowning this pool is seriously heavy on the lifeguards. Unfortunately, the Time Capsule is in Airdrie, not LA, so there isn’t even any hunky man candy to brighten the day — I did warn you it was hell!
If you survive the wave machine, rapids and the blood pressure spike trying to locate the knickers the family fun continues trying to find a route out of the labyrinth of the changing village. Much to my daughter’s delight we had to ask a staff member, twice.
Oh and then I discovered that the main café was closed for refurbishment and the only coffee on offer was instant from a temporary stand. I was close to tears. Smudge of course had a fantastic afternoon and as this was an activity for her I have starred accordingly.
In order to dispel any notions of my being a martyr to my children I would like to point out that swimming is an activity guaranteed to exhaust even the most energetic. Smudge was in bed and asleep for 7.30 leaving me and her Daddy free to ponder what we used to talk about when we had time alone.

Oh my God, last night I went to the Time Capsule and I felt like I was 12 all over again, this place is wonderful.
I used to go to the Time Capsule with my school friends when we were like 11 – 13. It’s not really somewhere you’d go for a swim, it’s more of a play around place. It has a wave pool, which I remembered being much bigger but apparently I’ve just grown, 2 flumes you can race down (you’ll always win in the yellow one it’s shorter), a huge big water slide called the Tornado Tantrum which made me want to sob violently because it has a huge stomach lurching drop in it, a jacuzzi and a little adventure bit with water cannons and stuff for children to play with. It’s genuinely so much fun still at my age.
As well as all of this it has a huge ice rink and a health suite, with a wee café overlooking the water. It’s a great place to bring children (and still fun if you’re not a child!)

I used to come to the Time Capsule every Saturday morning between the ages of 9 — 11. This was when they held the childrens ice-​skating, where you could skate around and they also held a little dancing on ice disco where the leader showed us some moves and we had to copy. After this wild workout everyone got a little paper bag full of tuck shops sweets, it was great!
After the ice-​skating my dad usually took us to the swimming pool, the river rapids were my favourite part and I could swim here for hours. I particularly remember the scary red dragon statue and the cave men who looked down on your when you were swimming round the pool, one of them was wielding a spear which I have to admit, was a little bit scary.
They also have a huge play area with ball pools, slides, climbing walls — it just looks amazing. Unfortunately, my parents never let me go here and I feel that I’ve missed out.
At the moment the play area pool is closed for major refurbishment, who knows what it will look like when it’s finished? I think I might take a trip back soon for good old times sakes.
A fantastic day out for all the family!

‘The biggest fun in a million years!’
This place was the alternative to going to Hamilton Water Palace for swimming when I was younger and having been fairly recently, it has lost some of its original charm.
I am of course getting older, but there used to be a bloody big wooly mammoth in the ice rink and now it’s a pretty humble and pretty small ice rink to be fair.
The swimming is still excellent, more the place you go for splishy splashy times rather than a proper swim.
A damn good day out for the younger ones, who probably wont be old enough to remember how much nicer it was when it first opened.

The Time Capsule was a huge part of my childhood. Oh, let me count the ways…
With a regular swimming pool, ice skating rink, children’s play area (the Adventure Zone), and Waterworld, it made a fine day out for us kids between the ages of about 5 and 13.
The ice skating rink is no longer as special as it used to be, since they took out the massive woolly mammoth and the inclines to make it a regular, flat rink. These days it seems to be frequented by, um, leisure-​suit wearers and skating enthusiasts on the non-​sporting end of things. Unfortunately the last time I went I hadn’t realised it was a school holiday and it was ridiculously busy. On a quiet day it’d be nice for a wee nostalgic skate.
The Waterworld is what it’s all about. With hourly waves, flumes, the river rapids, and loads of different wee areas to swim around in, it was amazing when I was a kid. It’s currently being refurbished, hopefully to its former glory.
The only other centre like this I can think of is the Magnum Centre out at Irvine. The Time Capsule is about a 10 – 15 minute walk from Coatbridge Sunnyside station, which is a 20 minute train ride from the city centre.
Although it’s not very central, it makes for a great day out for the kids.

The Time Capsule has always suffered slightly from it’s location. It’s always been a charming, family-​friendly leisure centre with a great fun swimming pool, but being situated in the planet’s Buckfast capital has never done it any favours.
The local young teams tend to stick to the ice rink, a part I’d never bother with anyway, so if you’re just going for a swim you won’t even notice you’re in Coatbridge. The pool is currently being refurbished, but assuming they stick to the formula, the new one will have flumes, waterfalls, rapids, and be a source of much excitement for the under 12s.
Unless you have kids, or are one yourself, The Time Capsule will have little appeal except nostalgia (truth be told I preferred Little Marco’s anyway), but if you do fit that demopgraphic then it’s still an excellent day out.

I haven’t been here in a while but it is great for children! Used to visit on my school trips. They have river rapids, a big flume, good sized pool and a café. They also have a health suite and an ice rink and provide a discount for birthday parties. The café is quite expensive though, making that obligatory slush puppy expensive too.

Swimming pool is a little aged now, however is great — highly recommend both kids soft play areas, service is always great too.

This facility has a variety of resources. The time capsule for youngsters has swimming pools, chutes flumes and other water activities for use. There is a normal swimming pool as well. The sports centre is attached to it and has sports equipment for use as well as providing classes such as aerobics and pilates. A place with something for everyone.

Other than swimming/​fun pool aspect of the Time Capsule, it also has excellent dry facilities such as a sports hall that can be booked for badminton, hockey and five a side football. It has excellent gymnastics, martial arts, dancing facilities and the gym has underwent a dramatic facelift, which has seen the heavy free weights moved to the coatbridge outdoor sports centre and the upstairs part of the time capsule gym be completey modernised with excellent fixed resistance, running, x-​training fitness machines. I cant really comment on the swimming part of the time capsule but i regularly use the sauna, steam room, jacuzzi and plunge pools after a work out, which are clean and comfortable (other than the heat).

The Time Capsule is a great pool, particularly for children. Great flumes/​shoots and all appear to love it when the foghorn sounds and the water starts rippling as ‘though it’s stormy at sea!
The ice skating rink is also a great place for children and young people to socialise and, by golly, I’ve watched some very talented young skaters whilst I have been observing, taking care of young people I work with when taking them on an outing here.
The food is reasonably good and inexpensive too!

One of the best swimming activities I’ve ever visited. Great fun for kids and adults who enjoy playing about in the water as well as serious swimming. Also just around the corner from Coatbridge Museum (Summerlee) — Well worth a day’s exploration on its own.

great place for a wee day out with the kids, can sometimes get really busy though, it s also a fab place for kids parties.

Best Leisure Pool in Central Scotland for 4 years & up, under 3’s are free but need to be 4 to get on slides (so tell them). Also has 25m Training Pool & Ice Rink. Unfortunately they don’t open all the slides & water fun side during term time and despite their commitment to listen to customers I have been met with a complete lack of interest in opening up for the pre-​schoolers. «There is no demand»! Write in for weekday peak opening for groups of 40 or more…
The lockers are half broken and are they’re shutting from November to March for maintenance, and spending a lot of £££ on replacing two of the slides.
SHUT FOR REFURBISHMENT JAN TIL APRIL
(25MTR POOL OPEN & ICE RINK OPEN)