How We Built Our Labyrinth

The pictures below show the process of building our labyrinth, from clearing the land to marking it out and actually creating it.

Clearing

To begin with we had to clear the land and level it out, as there was a gentle slope. So we hired a tractor and had a fun day chugging around the yard. In the picture below, you can see Maggie taking a turn at driving it.

The photo below shows the results of this work. Towards the end, we tied a railroad sleeper to the back and dragged that around to get it as smooth as we could.

Marking out

After that, we had to mark out the path by using spray cans to show the edges. This was done using a rope tied to the center marked with the correct diameters and walking backwards a lot!

The next photo, taken from our roof, shows the whole labyrinth marked out. If we'd known how hard the next stages would be, we'd probably had kept it like that: just painted on the earth.

Edging

Next came the hardest part of job, putting the edging in. We had spent a lot of time thinking about this. We wanted something which was durable, easily looked after but would look good. In the end we decided on lawn edging. The round top would make a nice visual effect. But the trick, we found, was digging a narrow trench deep enough to sink the edging in....

This turned into a long and painful process. No machine we could hire would dig a narrow enough trench or be maneuverable enough to allow us the control we needed. So we ended up with rock hammers on our knees cutting about 1200 feet of trench about 6 inches deep. Oooph!

The use of a pickax (below) was rare and used for when we came across big rocks lurking under the surface.

Finished preparation

However, the sense of pride and relief was huge when we finally completed the work. We didn't work every day on it, but when we could. It took about two months all told, from start to finish (if I remember correctly). Sometimes it seemed as if it would never be done.

We used to stagger in after working about 2 hours in the heat of summer (about 100 degrees) and try to give each other massages to get our stiff limbs working again.

But the result was certainly impressive...

We then had to put in the decorations around the edge, technically called 'lunations', which correspond to the number of moon phases in the year. We tried to find a good way of putting the arcs in the center circle, as in Chartres cathedral, but the edging wouldn't work and no other way presented itself to us. So we left it as a large circle.

All that was left was to put the rock in...

Finished everything!

And finally...! The rock is in place in this photo. All in all there were 40 tons of rock which were spread over the backyard and in the labyrinth. We picked a smaller rock with contrasting color for the labyrinth to allow it to pack down harder more quickly.

The only problem was that I had to take the 40 tons of rock into the yard using a wheelbarrow, as the gate was too narrow to allow any other method.

I barrowed it all in while Maggie raked and broomed and spread it out. The result was strained ligaments in my hands and the inability to fully straighten out my fingers for about a year!

We invited some people over to walk the labyrinth when it was finished. This picture below is one of the few that were taken when everyone else's camera failed. Needless to say, this is our camera and we're on the roof. Not one of the people in the picture (and several you can't see) was able to take any photo at all of this event.

I think you could say that this was certainly a labor of love and ended up looking fantastic. But the problems it eventually created have helped us to make up our minds that we're not going to attempt anything like this again.

If I want to walk a Chartres labyrinth again, I think I'll go to Chartres! The photo below is of the real Chartres Labyrinth which started it all.

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