Two Cornfield Labyrinths Invite You on an Adventure in Estonia

Text Timo Raussi
Photo Karl Markus Antson / Visit Estonia

Labyrinths cut into cornfields toward the end of summer have established themselves as local seasonal tourism attractions in Estonia. This year, two different labyrinths offer visitors a test of their sense of direction until the end of September: one in central Estonia, and the other on Saaremaa.

For the Sakk family, who run the Toretalu tourism farm in the village of Uuevälja near Põltsamaa, creating labyrinths has already been a 15-summer tradition. Every year, a new pattern is designed and cut with a trimmer into the six-hectare field, featuring corridors and a theme reflecting current phenomena: this year, for example, a design conveying a wartime theme.

A sketch of the pattern is given to visitors as a clue map. Six checkpoints have been hidden in the labyrinth for visitors to find. The difficulty of the route varies according to the pattern, keeping things interesting and encouraging some visitors to return to take on the challenge again and again. The family offers a small sweet prize to everyone who finds all the checkpoints.

The Toretalu farm itself is also part of the experience. For a symbolic admission fee, families can visit the farm every day from 12:00 to 19:00 to see the farm animals, play areas and other activities created around the farm.

Can You Get Lost in Saaremaa on Saaremaa?

The other corn labyrinth this summer is a new attraction on Saaremaa, located along the road leading northwest from Kuressaare towards Lake Karujärv, near Kärla farm. See the Google Maps link here.

Rather than a labyrinth, however, it might be more accurate to call it a 1.7-kilometre-long adventure trail, whose shape replicates the outline of Saaremaa. It was not created by cutting a path through corn that has grown more than two metres high in places. Instead, the field and labyrinth were prepared already in spring using a seed drill that precisely followed a GPS map.

In the middle of the labyrinth route, a geometric Flower of Life, familiar from feng shui symbolism, was also left unseeded. With its circular pattern, this might actually be a place where you could get lost, if you had exceptionally bad luck, by going around in an endless circle. By staying on the island-shaped route, visitors can figuratively walk along Saaremaa’s real coastline, which is slightly more than 870 kilometres long, in half an hour. There is also a small prize draw for those who “solve” this labyrinth, accessible via a QR code on a website.

Both labyrinths are open until the end of September, when the fodder corn is harvested to become part of the farms’ winter feed for their animals.

To learn more about this and similar topics
adventure labyrinth outdoor activities Põltsamaa Saaremaa Toretalu Tourism tourism farm