As part of Otford Adventures Phil Clucas has designed and cut a giant Labyrinth in what was the Great Tudor Courtyard of Otford Palace – now ‘lost’ beneath meadow-grass. The convoluted circular pathway leading to the mysterious ‘Wishing Stone’ will be unveiled at Sunday’s ‘Picnic at the Palace‘, when children – and ‘older children up to the age of ninety-three’ – will be able to walk the Labyrinth’s sinuous and ever-changing route.
As you journey along the path you will be tracing one of the first designs known to history, as the Labyrinth dates back at least four thousand years. During that time it has been regarded as a ‘sacred pathway’, a ‘fertility route’, a ‘processional pilgrimage’, or simply as an ‘enchanting bit of fun’… make of it what you will…!
Otford’s Labyrinth can be freely visited at any time, and will remain in place for the next couple of months (until the path finally grows-out). Until then, the Otford Society hope it will prove to be a feature that fascinates today’s ‘pilgrims’ as much as it did previous Tudor owners of the Palace.