Dry Stone Wall Maze

The Dry Stone Wall Maze in the heart of Dalby Forest.

When it is finished the outer most wall will measure eighty metres square, the walls will stand six feet two inches high, consist of over 4000 tonnes of stone and take approximately 3 years to complete.

Visitors will follow a short path through the forest to the maze entrance, which will be flanked by two enormous, ten foot tall standing stones.

 

The maze has been aligned with the sunrise on the Summer Solstice, and from its centre the sun can be seen rising between these two standing stones. Special stone features traditionally found in field and garden walls across the North Yorkshire Moors and Dales such as: stone step stiles, squeeze stiles, smout holes, kissing gates, phantom gates and moon gates, will be incorporated within the walls of the maze; to conspire with it, misleading, hindering, challenging and assisting  visitors of all ages along their journey to the centre- the Goal.

SPECIAL STONE FEATURES

 

TRADITIONAL STONE STEP STILES

These are especially long through stones built into the walls so that they stick out at right angles and form a diagonal series of steps up one side of the wall and down the other. From the top of the wall visitors have an overview of the whole maze enabling them to consider possible alternative routes within the maze, immediately transporting themselves from one section to another, but not always moving forwards to the goal. The maze will contain dead ends and apparent dead ends, only on closer inspection can a stile be seen, when viewed from a distance they appear invisible. The stile offers a shortcut deeper into the maze.

 

.SQUEEZER STILES

Two large stones six feet high standing almost shoulder to shoulder built into the wall with the narrowest of gaps separating them, allowing people to pass but not sheep.

 

SMOUT HOLES

A hole built into the wall large enough to let sheep through but too small for cattle, perfect for children to hide in and surprise their parents.

 

LARGE BOULDER STONES

Set into the walls to act as marker stones.

 

BEE BOLES

These were built in garden walls specifically to house the old fashioned type of straw bee skep. In these niches the hives survive the winter. The bee boles will make good seats for weary visitors, out of the wind and well protected especially if their tops are built not with ordinary flat lintels but with an arch.

 

LARGE FLAT STONES

Set at the base of the last inner wall, which encircles the goal at the centre of the maze providing seating for the visitors.

 

MOONGATE

This is a large circular arch gateway in a wall.

 

THE PHANTOM GATE

The walling up of gateways is a method adopted to prevent the wind blowing across exposed fields. Whenever cattle or sheep need to be moved through the gateway, the wall must be taken down and rebuilt. Elsewhere, the walling up of a gateway occurs when it is no longer used.

Unlike the hedge mazes with their fixed routes and pathways, which remain the same from one year to the next, the walls within the drystone wall maze can be dismantled, removed and relocated. A visitor on returning to the maze may find that the route they remembered taking on a previous visit, which took them forward to the goal, has now changed. An entrance which had been there before has now vanished. A path which led to a dead end is now a path leading to the goal and is passed by.  The inclusion of phantom gates within the maze will ensure the maze remains challenging, compelling people to revisit the maze.

THE GOAL

The maze having failed in its attempts to turn away visitors and with hold from them its goal, now surrenders it to them. Here at the centre of the maze the journey ends. The last circular wall in the maze helps create a natural peaceful space, a place where visitors come together. This experience of finding oneself “here”, is essentially the reward of reaching the goal. Marking the most central point within the maze, where all activity subsides stands a tree a focal point for the visitor to contemplate and reflect upon or simply to play around.

 

QUICK EXIT

After the climax of reaching the goal, visitors may spend as much time finding their way out, given the choice of leaving by a quick exit sustains the elation of having solved the maze.