Mad about Mazes

We’ve recently uncovered even more about Ronnie’s lifelong fascination with mazes. Hidden among her files are more stories of mazes, labyrinths and the winding paths she delighted in exploring. This month, we’re sharing those discoveries in a new blog, celebrating Ronnie’s joy in getting “misplaced” on purpose and the wonder she found in every twist and turn. It’s a charming glimpse into yet another of her passions…a delightful new thread woven into the tapestry of her life.

"The nine men's morris is filled up with mud

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green

For lack of tread are indistinquisable."

A Midsummer Night's Dream

St. Nectan's Glen and Rocky Valley

On the road winding east from Tintagel, a deep valley leads up to a 40ft waterfall which plunges down St. Nectan's Glen into a “kieve” (Cornish for a large basin). The saintly hermit is said to be buried nearby. The stream can be followed north off the road into Rocky Valley, a harsh place of slate and sea-spray. This was a former home of the chough, the red billed crow once common in Cornwall and said to be the re-incarnated spirit of King Arthur.

Tucked away in this narrow wooded gorge are two labyrinth-like carvings, each 23 cm across. The mazes have been pecked out of the vertical rock face beside the derelict, dis-used mill buildings. Although scheduled under the Ancient Monument Act as Bronze Age carvings it is possible that they could have been carved by the miller, who was considered to be eccentric but a mathematical genius.

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  Ronnie does a rubbing of the carvings

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  The rubbing Ronnie did

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  A tapestry Ronnie created of the carving

Continue on down to the sea and the valley becomes less wooded and eventually bare slate, here, is heard the hermit's bell—legend says it can be heard heralding a storm.

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  Maze at Ellsemere

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  Maze at Rutland

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  Julian’s Bower, Alkborough

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  Julian’s Bower, Alkborough

More of Ronnie's Mazes...Oswestry, Julians Bower, Ellesmere, Rutland