Adrian Fisher’s five mazes to visit
1. Leeds Castle, Kent
Few mazes can match Leeds Castle’s dramatic exit, which rewards players with a trip through a twisty subterranean grotto, its shell-encrusted walls concealing fearsome sculptures. This yew maze was devised by Mr Fisher, Randoll Coate and Graham Burgess in 1987 and features a disorientating spiral construction in the shape of a crown—a nod to the many queens who have resided at the castle.
2. Beazer Gardens Maze, Somerset
Despite its name, this pavingstone puzzle near Bath’s Pulteney Bridge is technically a labyrinth, as it is solved by following a single path. Created by Mr Fisher in 1984, in collaboration with Coate and Mr Burgess, the simple-looking puzzle is deceptively clever.
Classical figures with connections to Bath’s heritage feature in an intricate marble mosaic comprising seven ‘gaze mazes’ to be solved by a keen eye.
3. Scone Palace, Perthshire
Located in the grounds of the crowning place of Macbeth, Robert the Bruce and Charles II, Mr Fisher’s most eye-catching Scottish maze is a masterpiece of texture and colour (above). Alternating hedges of green and copper beech weave together to make a tartan garden in the shape of the heraldic Murray Star.
4. Kentwell Hall, Suffolk
Across a moat, in the central courtyard of a splendid 16thcentury property, is Mr Fisher and Coate’s award-winning labyrinth in the shape of a Tudor Rose, thought to be the world’s largest brick-pavement maze. The five-thorned rose proffers five different progressions through the puzzle. When you’ve solved these, brick paths indicating junctions and flyovers permit an additional brain teaser—this time in three dimensions.
5. Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
An aerial view of the 1.8-acre, two-mile-long Marlborough Maze reveals eight letters spelling out Blenheim and a fanfare of cannons, banners and trumpets inspired by Grinling Gibbons’s stone sculptures, commissioned for the palace’s roof more than 300 years ago. From one of the bridges, you may also spot the V-sign that Mr Fisher and Coate included to commemorate Sir Winston Churchill, who was born at Blenheim and features on the £5 note beside a holograph of the maze.