Longleat

Another great estate 100 miles to the west has become one of the centers of British maze-making. A visit to Longleat in Wiltshire includes the ancestral stately home of Lord Bath, Capability Brown landscaped gardens, and a drive-through animal safari park … plus six mazes.

The newest of them, The Blue Peter Maze was built of timber especially for children. It was designed by a nine-year-old girl who beat 12,000 entrants in a competition run by a children's TV program.

Other Longleat mazes include the indoor King Arthur's Mirror Maze, the rose-covered Love Labyrinth, and the intertwining Sun Maze and Lunar box hedge labyrinths.

Serious maze enthusiasts are catered to by the grand Hedge Maze: it has the world's longest total path length at 1.69 miles. The hedges are made from 16,180 yew trees and are laid out in curves to disorient the walker. It opened 26 years ago and is so complex that special 'lift if lost' direction panels are incorporated to help you find the way out.