Get lost in aMAZEing places

I’ve found a fairy, a horse and a coin and I’m now in the process of unlocking a pirate’s treasure chest with a key I’ve tracked down inside a book.

It took a lot of detective work to get this far, and I fear I’d have struggled somewhat if I hadn’t had a team mate to help me.

I’m playing an “escape game”, one of the many challenges on offer at aMAZEing places – a newly launched maze venture near Stonehaven.

With plans to bring the mobile maze to Broughty Ferry, founder Gavin McGill says he has big ideas for the business, with special themed events taking place through summer.

“It takes the traditional challenge of finding your way through a maze and adds colourful and fun knowledge trails for kids as they go round,” he says.

“It also incorporates escape games inside the maze, where participants solve a series of clues and puzzles within a set time to find the key to escape.”

The maze is mobile and can be reconfigured so people face new tests every time they visit.

A major draw for children is finding the maze’s very own Minotaur, and drawing their version of the Greek mythological creature.

There are monthly murder mysteries, with characters stationed in and around the maze, and participants tasked with working out who is the killer.

Today, Gavin sets Courier photographer Kim Cessford and me one of his “escape games”, which, he estimates, should take around 40 minutes.

Handing me a radio (in case we need help) and a sheet of clues, we’re on a mission to gain access to the “spy room”. To do this, we need five numbers, which, as we’ll find out, will form the combination to open the room’s padlock.

The first question is easy: which number planet are we from the sun? “The third, so that must be three,” pipes up Kim.

There’s a “welcoming man” at the start of the maze who has the number one next to a “help” sign, and we also need to work out “The