St Martin’s Solstice Labyrinth : Continuing the Tradition of Maze Making at White Island Bar

29 Jun

The newly created “Bora Maze” on St Martin’s - named after the Cornish word for Sunrise (and the Scillonian word for Labyrinth) - and created to align with the rising sun on the Summer Solstice.

“The White Island Bar Mazes represent the physical manifestation of a fluid maze building tradition, rather than any one static or singular structure, like the Troy Town or Giant’s Castle sites.”

When we were invited to come and host a labyrinth event on St Martin’s, we naturally jumped at the chance. St Martin’s has a rich mazey history but - like the other labyrinth sites in Scilly - there are barely any records of this phenomenon, despite its presence on the island for at least 70 years. In his seminal 2018 survey of Scilly’s labyrinths The Isles of Scilly Troy Towns, Jeff Saward describes the St Martin’s mazes:

“By far the largest collection of stone labyrinths and mazes on the islands are to be found on the island of St. Martin’s. An extensive group of stone mazes and labyrinths are to be found situated on a flat area (known locally as the “maze field”) adjacent to the shoreline littered with rocks opposite White Island, on the northwest tip of the island. OS map reference centred around SV 923170. In total at least 15 stone mazes and labyrinths, along with initials, names and dates, have been constructed at this location over the years, and the precise number at any one time fluctuates as new examples are constructed, old ones become overgrown and stones are plundered from one to build another.”

When Jeff was writing, he counted fifteen mazes at White Island Bar, and the below photo - also taken by Jeff in 1990 - shows many different mazes scattering the bar:

Part of the St. Martin’s maze field in 1990, with the newly built classical labyrinth centre of frame. Photo: Jeff Saward.

Now however, only two of these mazes are still clearly visible, as illustrated by this incredible still taken from drone footage shot by St Martin’s photographer James Faulconbridge earlier this year. Here, the field of mazes reads like a palimpsest, with the ghost image of old mazes drawn and redrawn under the turf, now erased. The tradition of making mazes here seems to be vanishing here too.

Spring 2025 image of the White Island Bar mazes by James Faulconbridge.

palimpsest
noun: palimpsest; plural noun: palimpsests /ˈpalɪm(p)sɛst/

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.
- something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.
  "Sutton Place is a palimpsest of the taste of successive owners"

mid 17th century: via Latin from Greek palimpsēstos, from palin ‘again’ + psēstos ‘rubbed smooth’.

The Archimedes Palimpsest, a Byzantine era Greek mauscript.

We never had the ambition to build a new pebble maze as part of this project, which (although primarily a public art project) has a historic focus and is about lifting up Scilly’s lesser-know cultural heritage, rather than leaving our own mark on this beautiful (and often ecologically sensitive) coastline. But we found that we couldn’t attempt any kind of straightforward “restoration” of the vanishing White Island Bar Mazes, as these represent the physical manifestation of a fluid maze building tradition, rather than any one static or singular structure like the Troy Town or Giant’s Castle sites.

Therefore we decided (after some conversations with St Martin’s residents) that making a new maze at the site was the appropriate thing to do, to try to rekindle interest in this important creative tradition, which is part of Scilly’s history.

The design we chose was a seven-circuit, unicursal, classical labyrinth pattern. It is likely that Troy Town Maze was originally built in this shape - though that site is thought to have lost its outer ring - and, as Troy Town is Scilly’s oldest labyrinth, we felt that this was a fitting shape to emulate.

The pattern for our new labyrinth, used to lay out ropes which we slowly replaced by stones.

An early example of this design found on a Cretan coin, from the year 67 B.C.

Layan showing volunteer Emma how to draw this labyrinth pattern.

We began by selecting the site for the labyrinth. This needed to be outside the scheduled monument area of the nearby prehistoric cain cemetery, field system and settlements of Top Rock Hill, and far away from the plovers that were nesting to one side of the causeway to White Island, while still aligning with the solstice sun. Initially we had thought that aligning to the sunset would be best, but this felt too far off around to the left, so we opted to align with the rising sun instead, which would line up with the corner of White Island facing out across the causeway. To my knowledges, Labyrinths do not usually line up with any particular alignments or dates on the wheel of the year, but we thought this would be a nice thing to do anyway, as a way to mark the Solstice. The doorways of Scillonian entrance graves typically line up with astronomical alignments at key dates, so in a way we were also honouring this ancient Scillonian practice too.

The sign informing the public of plovers nesting on the beach. For more information and to donate to protect this important bird (which is now extinct in Cornwall) visit the Wildlife Trust’s website: https://www.ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk/appeals/protect-our-plovers

The nearby Scheduled Monument area, as indicated by Cornwall Council’s interactive map. This is a brilliant resource for identifying Scilly’s ancient sites - which are absolutely all over the place, so this proximity is not alarming nor unusual.

The Summer Solstice Sunset alignment shows that at this time of year the sun sets behind the rocky island of Pernagie, which is quite far off to the lefthand side as you look out over the sea from the maze site. We decided this wasn’t the ideal alignment for a labyrinth.

The Summer Solstice Sunrise alignment shows that the Solstice sun will rise at the corner of White Island as you look out over the causeway. This felt like a more appropriate direction for our new labyrinth to face… though it did mean a very early morning!

We also wanted to choose a site that disturbed as few of the existing White Island Bar mazes as possible, and eventually settled on a position to the East of the two mazes that are still clearly visible. We began by laying a rope to show the alignment with the sunrise, and our volunteer Lorraine showed us how to dowse with a pendulum to find the energetic centre of the labyrinth, emulating Donovan Wilkins’ methods at the Troy Town Maze Restoration in the 1980s. We then laid the first stones - selected for their pleasant aesthetics and general good vibes.

Layan working out the solstice orientation with our volunteer Simon.

The first two stones - selected by our first volunteer Lorraine.

The labyrinth taking shape with specially chosen stones.

Each person was invited to choose stones for the maze that resonated with them in some way.

At first the idea of selecting only “special stones” seemed silly to some, but everyone had to admit that there is such a human joy inherent in finding really nice rocks. This also meant that stones were selected from all across the area, to minimise our impact on the immediate vicinity. Our only other instructions for the volunteers were that the stones should be “around the size of a cantaloupe melon and from nowhere near the plover nest site” and they should lay them where they wanted in the new labyrinth design. The response was overwhelmingly positive - with locals, visitors, young and old coming to lend a hand - and the labyrinth took shape before our eyes:

This was a very special moment when our volunteers David and Gail laid two stones side by side - one for their grandchild Juno and another for their second soon-to-be-born grandchild. We hope that - when they are old enough - these children will be able to come to walk the labyrinth and see the stones that were placed for them here.

Just some of our team of amazing volunteers who worked to create this new labyrinth.

As we worked, we talked with the volunteers about Scilly’s maze heritage and labyrinth symbolism more generally, and they told us what they knew about the mazes, and the wildlife around the site. We learned that - according to local lore - one of the mazes is supposedly ancient, but nobody is sure which one it is anymore. This location - beside the tidal causeway to White Island - would make sense for the site of an ancient labyrinth, as they are often connected with threshold spaces, and on islands by the sea.

“I used to make mazes here when I was a kid, but I haven't done it since. I think the different kinds of stones used were supposed to have different meanings, but I can't remember what they were anymore. Now I'm here with my grandchild.”

~ A volunteer from St Martin’s, participating in making the new labyrinth.

Volunteers trying out the completed maze design.

We were struck by how beautiful the finished maze was, as every rock had been specially selected for different reasons - smoothness, colour, shape, even likeness to a piece of cheese in one case - which meant the finished maze looked exceptionally lovely. As with any of the mazes on Scilly, these stones will roll around, and the twists of the paths will inevitably change - the unicursal “labyrinth” will likely become a “maze” with choices to make - and the shape will only remain at all if people care for it. We felt quite heartened by the fact that: if people like it, they will walk it and tidy it up now and then and so it will survive for a while. But if they don’t really like it then that won’t happen and it will also get overgrown and that’s fine too - not everything has to last forever. We do hope that this new labyrinth will re-kindle an interest in the White Island Bar Mazes generally and new ones will continue to appear, while others fade away - to be be walked and played in and puzzled over for many years to come.