Garden mazes have been popular in Britain since the 16th century and there are dozens for visitors to enjoy. Great fun for everyone, these mazes combine the challenge of a puzzle with incredible garden design. Some are quite easy to conquer, but others require patience and a good memory! Here is a small selection of Britain’s garden mazes which we’re sure your clients will love to try.

The perfectly formed Traquair House Maze (photo courtesy of Traquair House)

Garden mazes evolved from the intricate knot gardens of Renaissance Europe and were originally low growing and planted with evergreen herbs. However, over time these were replaced with more robust box hedges. Initially the hedge maze wasn’t designed to confuse, but to provide a single walking path – what we know of today as a labyrinth.

Puzzle-like mazes with tall hedges, multiple paths and dead ends arrived in Britain during the reign of King William III. The popularity of garden mazes reached its peak in the 18th century as they became an essential feature of grand country house gardens.

The Maze at Hampton Court Palace

The oldest surviving puzzle maze in Britain is at Hampton Court Palace, in the London borough of Richmond. Commissioned by King William around 1700, it covers a third of an acre and is known for confusing and intriguing visitors with its many twists, turns and dead ends. Originally planted using hornbeam, it was later replanted in yew, and its distinctive trapezoidal shape is due to pre-existing paths running alongside the maze.

Aerial view of The Maze at Hampton Court Palace © Historic Royal Palaces

Longleat Hedge Maze, Wiltshire

The longest garden maze in the world is at Longleat House in Wiltshire, close to the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath. With almost two miles of paths, it can take up to 90 minutes to navigate. Designed in 1978, Longleat Hedge Maze is a three-dimensional maze that uses bridges and a grid-less layout to confuse visitors!

Longleat Hedge Maze (credit: Rurik, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Traquair House Maze, Peeblesshire

The largest hedge maze in Scotland is at Traquair House in the Scottish Borders, just 30 miles from Edinburgh. Designed by a craft worker at Traquair in the 1980s, the maze has an intriguing layout, with no dead ends and visitors must reach four sub centres before reaching the centre. Originally planted with 1,500 Leyland cypress, the maze suffered from an extraordinarily harsh winter in 1983 when over two thirds of the trees died. It was subsequently replanted with hardier beech trees. On Easter Sunday each year, an Easter Egg Hunt takes place for children, with over 6,000 Easter eggs hidden in the maze!

Traquair House Maze (photo courtesy of Traquair House)

The Water Maze at Hever Castle, Kent

Hever Castle in Kent, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, boasts not only a 100-year-old yew maze, but also a remarkable water maze. The water maze consists of a series of concentric stepping stone walkways sitting over water. At intervals the stones tilt when stood on and hidden water jets soak the unwary visitor. The aim is to reach the stone grotto in the centre without getting wet – but few are successful!

The Water Maze at Hever Castle

Marlborough Maze at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

The Marlborough Maze at Blenheim Palace is the world's second largest hedge maze and the only one of its size designed as a picture. Commemorating the Duke of Marlborough’s famous victory at the Battle of Blenheim, the maze design features flowing banners, trumpets, spears and cannon. The wheel of the cannon is the goal of the maze and features a statue of the Greek god Eros at its centre, with the world Blenheim spelt out in low hedging.

Marlborough Maze © Blenheim Palace

Glendurgan Garden Maze, Cornwall

Designed almost 200 hundred years ago, the neatly manicured hedges of Glendurgan Garden Maze, near Falmouth in Cornwall, spiral tightly around themselves in representation of a coiled serpent. Originally planted by Quakers Alfred and Sarah Fox to entertain their 12 children, it was designed as ‘a series of irregular, winding walks that remind us of life, where we may go wrong in a multitude of ways, but right in only one’. A four-year project to restore the maze to its former glory was completed in 2022.

The Maze at Glendurgan Garden in Cornwall

Murray Star Maze at Scone Palace, Perth

The distinctive maze at Scone Palace in Perth, Scotland, was designed by international maze designer Adrian Fisher, and is in the shape of a five pointed star, which features in the Murray family crest. Scone Palace is the ancestral home of the Murrays, one of the great families of Scotland, and the maze is planted in a mixture of copper and green beech to resemble the family tartan. The maze was completed in 1991 and contains 2,000 beech trees and over 800 metres of paths.

Murray Star Maze, Scone Palace © VisitScotland / Kenny Lam

If your or your group would like to enjoy a tailor-made Garden Tour of Britain, visiting some - or all - of these extraordinary garden mazes, please co contact our friendly team today.