A wonderful way to spend a few hours with the kids when the weather is good. Enjoyable for young and old, local or tourist.

Recently Anthony Creswell of Ummera mentioned a maze down near Kilbrittain in the comments of my blog. We had some visitors down from Dublin over the weekend and decided to give it a go on Saturday. I couldn’t find the address of Rathclaren on the map but we headed towards Kilbrittain in any case. Luckily they have the maze well sign-posted from the village onwards.

We pulled up outside the house and rang the bell. A very friendly young boy came out and explained the whole thing and provided maps, a guide and pens. He also followed us up to get us started.

You can do the maze to varying degrees of difficulty. Easiest is just to follow the map, get to the middle, ring the bell and get out again. If you are up for something longer then they have clues scattered all over the maze which you collect, match to letters and then solve the anagram. This means you have to investigate every nook, cranny and dead-end. Finally you can try doing it map-less!

They tell you to bring your mobile in case you get lost and this is a good idea. The field is 5 acres in size and you could easily get disoriented. Of course 8 years in the Scouts as an expert map reader meant that I survived to tell the tale.

It is €5 per person with under fives free and they also have some picnic tables if you want to eat. The Pink Elephant and some beaches are close by, so you could really make a day of it.

We had three adults, a baby in sling, my five year old and my three year old. Initially the kids were unimpressed and griped but they soon got into the swing of it when we found the first clue. They loved ringing the big brass bell in the middle. We took the easiest shortest approach which was lucky as it started raining just towards the end. I could see it being a real challenge without a map as the corn is very tall at this stage so you have no frame of reference.

It was great fun and I could see it being brilliant for parties with older kids. You could even hide surprises and prizes in the maze and have a big feast once they are done.

Great fun, good for you and a really smart dual-use facility. Highly recommended.

The hyperlink at the top of the review is to a Microsoft Live Local map showing exactly where they are.

You can call them on +353-23-49842 and +353-87-7965321. Open 11am-6pm, 7 days a week, weather permitting.

Rated 5/5 on Sep 02 2007 by Conor O’Neill
Review Tags: activity, cork, fun, ireland, kids, maze, tourism, tourist, west cork
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