The Masone Labyrinth / Labirinto della Masone The estate also now includes a Safari Park, said to be the first outside Africa, as well as three smaller garden mazes. It’s part of 8000 acres that have belonged to the various Marquesses of Bath since the 16th century, 900 of which were beautified by famed landscape designer Lancelot “Capability” Brown (so nicknamed for his tendency to describe landscapes as having “great capabilities”). Longleat Maze, Warminster, Wiltshire, EnglandĬonstructed from more than 16,000 English yews, the maze at Longleat is the longest hedge maze in the world, stretching for close to 1.7 miles. Below, a selection of the most interesting and eye-catching from around the world. Hedge mazes have been a fixture of imposing estates for centuries, and have more recently been joined by corn mazes, straw mazes, and other confusing adventures in vegetation.
Visitors expecting the towering greenery of the film will be disappointed, however-the Stanley’s maze is only three feet high, to prevent children from getting lost, let alone attacked by psychos. But the building that inspired the Overlook (and the Shining story in general)-the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado-never actually had a hedge maze until 2015, when its owners finally gave in to public expectations and installed one. It’s one of the most memorable scenes in film history: an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson chasing his son through a hedge maze outside the Overlook Hotel during the climax of 1980’s The Shining.