Turf Maze

Historically, a turf maze is a labyrinth made by cutting a convoluted path into a level area of short grass, turf or lawn. Some had names such as Mizmaze, Troy Town, The Walls of Troy, Julian's Bower, or Shepherd's Race (see Maze names, below). This is the type of maze referred to by William Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 2, Scene 2) when Titania says

"The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;

and the quaint mazes in the wanton green,

for lack of tread are undistinguishable."

As a group they were (and still are) commonly known as "mazes", although some argue that "maze" and "labyrinth" should no longer be used interchangeably. Unlike a maze, which is an entertaining puzzle with many dead ends, a labyrinth is unicursal: it consists of one path which twists and turns but leads inevitably to the centre. In some turf labyrinths, the groove cut in the turf is the path to be walked (sometimes marked with bricks or gravel); more commonly the turf itself forms the raised path which is marked out by shallow channels excavated between its twists and turns.

Most British examples are based on one of two layouts: the Classical or the later, more complex Medieval type which is derived from it.