Why George will love it when his Grandpa Charles says: Get lost!
... so can YOU solve Prince’s amazing maze?
IT WILL be the perfect place for Prince Charles to play with his grandchildren – a magnificent maze he is creating in the grounds of the Scottish stately home he has saved for the nation.
With its winding paths stretching for more than half a mile, the labyrinth at Dumfries House in Ayrshire is certain to provide hours of pleasure – not to mention frustration – when it is opened in the New Year.
Although visitors to the house will have to pay an entry fee, the maze itself is free.
The Prince, who was inspired by childhood memories of a maze at Sandringham that has long since disappeared, has overseen the design, which has a Japanesestyle pagoda at its centre as well as obelisks and statues.
Dumfries House was saved by a charitable consortium led by Charles in 2009, and the imposing 18th Century Palladian building, set in 2,000 acres, is said to be the project closest to his heart.
The estate and all its contents – bought for £45million, of which £20million was a loan from the Prince’s charitable trust – is now being renovated so it can become self-sufficient.
The estate’s administrative director, Kenneth Dunsmuir, said: ‘It is a one-off. There cannot be a lot of mazes made across the country in recent years. It is in its final stages and is looking magnificent. It will be free for people to explore – and hopefully they won’t get so lost they will need rescuing. Recalling with fondness his childhood visits to Sandringham and its elaborate maze, the Prince expressed a desire to create a maze on the estate.
‘Also, having redesigned the parterre at the front of the house, which consists of knee-high hedging around a set of pathways, His Royal Highness noted children enjoyed winding their way through the design and thought it would be wonderful to have a fullsize maze for them to explore.’
The maze, by Fife-based landscape designer Michael Innes, involves more than 1,000 yards of 6ft-high yew hedges. Planting began six months ago, with Charles being kept up to date on progress every week.
It sits on a raised platform, with a traditional stone wall around the perimeter and oak obelisks at each corner that mir- ror the ones at the front of the house. In the middle will be a place for ‘reflection’ – a Japanesestyle pavilion by Isabel and Julian Bannerman, the designers behind the British Memorial Garden to 9/11 in New York.
The only surviving Royal maze is at Hampton Court in London, which was commissioned by William III in about 1700. However, the paths in the new labyrinth will be slightly longer.
The project has been funded by Barbara Allbritton, chairman of The Prince of Wales’s US Foundation, in memory of her late husband, the philanthropist, banking and media baron Joe Allbritton.
Over several decades, the Allbrittons built up an extraordinary collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including works by Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso.