A Novel and Professional Outdoor Indoor Axe Throwing Experience

Review of Mr E Rooms Axe Throwing, Scarborough UK

Axe throwing Scarborough has a novel approach to creating the usual indoor hatchet throwing experience – they do it outside! In a very clever use of space, they have converted the backyard of their large historic building (housing the nine Mr E Rooms Escape Rooms) into a covered outdoor axe throwing area. Obviously it’s an add-on to their successful escape room business, but it’s all been done very professionally and provided a great throwing experience.

There tends to be a divide in axe throwing between the outdoor throwing usually on more rustic ranges in the middle of nowhere and the indoor axe throwing in urban clubs or bars. While it’s nice to be out in the fresh air, outdoor ranges are often limited by the weather and tend to be more club-based amateurs. The Scarborough outdoor range in the middle of the popular Yorkshire seaside town is just like you would find in any indoor commercial axe throwing venue, it’s just outside. Personally, I liked the opportunity to throw in the fresh air, on a professional range.

The set-up is a bit like two large bike sheds, with metal post and wire walls holding up corrugated roofs over the axe throwing area. There are four axe throwing lanes, two single lanes in each ‘shed’. There was also an open area behind the lanes, for spectators, with the potential to have a bbq or socialise generally. The spectator area wasn’t covered, so although in nice weather it would be very pleasant to be outdoors, it might not be so much fun in the rain.

The targets were decent enough planks with a bespoke target, similar to an IATF design. The targets were in good condition and well watered. The axes were pretty standard diy store hatchets and threw fine.

Our axe coach was very friendly and enthusiastic. He took us through a safety and instruction brief and hung around to chat, but largely let us get on with throwing once he could see we were ok with it.

The venue started out as a Timberjacks axe throwing offshoot, but with Timberjacks going into administration in 2025, they are carrying it on independently. One benefit of that seems to be a reduction in price. The standard Timberjacks experience always seemed a bit expensive to me, especially considering that you were only paying for the basic throwing against one target with one axe, eg no digital games, other throwing implements etc you might find at other similar venues for less. (Albeit, having also thrown at Timberjacks Kidderminster and Leeds, they always provided a good all round experience.)

Scarborough is still carrying on the Timberjacks approach of providing add-on games to the standard experience. The idea is you pay an extra £3 per person for any game you want to add. We had a go at cutting the string stretched across the target. If you cut it (we didn’t, despite being close 🙂 ), you win the prize.

We also had a go at the apple smashing challenge. Apples were dangled on our target and the ‘prize’ was the joy of seeing them obliterated by an axe! Our coach was very generous with the apples and we had a great time smashing them up. There are also competitions to hit the blue dot and get a high score in six throws, which you can also optionally buy into.

We visited Scarborough in early summer, so it was great to be outdoors, especially so with no mud or having to trek out of town. Standing outside a grand old Scarborough building, which looked more like a museum from the street, we were initially curious as to where they could fit an axe throwing range, so the indoor outdoor backyard axe throwing was a pleasant surprise. It was professionally done with an enthusiastic host, and the add-on games were a nice bonus to a solid standard offering. Glad it’s continuing.

Disclaimer: “The Axe Inspector” receives no payment or benefit of any kind from either TheAxeThrower.com or from the venue, for this review. The review is the subjective opinion of one person (albeit as objective as possible) and we encourage throwers to try out the venue to make their own mind up.