- This childish hobby King Charles still pursues today
He is the King of Labyrinths: Charles. From a young age, he loved strolling through a maze to find the exit. "He spent hours on this quirky hobby, much to the amusement of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II," reports royal expert Jennie Bond to "OK!".
Over the decades, the mazes from his childhood in the gardens of royal residences were dismantled, a shame, it seems, to the King. So, he decided to rebuild them. In 2016, his project to revive the mazes began with one at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, followed by impressive ones at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire and one near Sandringham in Norfolk.
The latter was inspired by a maze from King Charles' childhood, while the one at Dumfries House has a Japanese pagoda in the middle and the one at Balmoral is in the shape of the Scottish national flower, the thistle. The mazes are also open to the public, but King Charles also aims to leave a royal legacy with them.
King Charles wants to pass on his childhood hobby to his grandchildren
He still enjoys wandering through them himself, but he also takes great pleasure in watching his grandchildren play in the mazes. The design of the maze in Sandringham resembles yews and was inspired by his own childhood memories. The King, a passionate gardener, also sees the complex, square-shaped maze as a "homage to geometry and cosmic symbolism," writes "Tatler".
Work on the "Lower Maze Garden" in Sandringham began in January 2023. Sandringham's head gardener, Jack Linfield, told the "Daily Mail" that designing the maze was "very exciting" for both him and the King. In 2016, at the opening of his first maze, the King said: "I must admit, I'm indulging my childhood fantasy of mazes. There's nothing quite like getting lost in a maze."
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King Charles expresses regret at the dismantling of the mazes from his childhood, as they hold significant sentimental value for him. Other than enjoying the mazes personally, he also wants to share this childhood hobby with his grandchildren, aiming to leave a lasting royal legacy through these intricate labyrinths.
