Amazing Maize Maze

I discovered this gem on the internet and decided it would be a great thing to take Andrew's brothers to.  Something outdoors, fun, and different from the norm.  So just outside Kilbrittain in West Cork exists McCarthy's Maze Trail, well, existed, it was harvested over the weekend so we got there just in time! We'd been planning it for a while but since our car broke down we had to plan it to be sometime when Andrew could take the mini-bus from work.  We decided on a Thursday after school because it seemed to be the only free day.  The days leading up the Thursday we'd chosen (which also happened to be the last possible Thursday before they harvested) were pretty dire weather wise. Rain, rain, and more rain.  Weather reports said mostly cloudy for our chosen day and it was definitely overcast on the day, and of course started to rain on the way there.  We picked up Dean and James and Jared came too because we had the mini-bus.  We decided to go the back roads, but the back roads in Ireland in a mini-bus may not have been the best idea, however, we made it only having to U-turn a few times. The closer we got the foggier it got, but we decided it was cooler that way.  Since it had been raining all week including that day, we had the maze all to ourselves. We pulled into the field/parking, and saw that no one was there.  Luckily a guy in a tractor passed by not 5 minutes later and he stopped and said he'd send someone right up.  A lovely lady showed up and brought us to the entrance and explained what we were looking for in the maze.  There were 2 mazes right next to each other, a smaller, 1-acre, warm-up one, in which we were to find 6 animal statues and then find and ring the bell once we've found all of them. The larger maze was 5 acres, and there were 12 signposts with symbols on them which corresponded to letters on a sheet of paper she'd given to us which we then had to rearrange to spell two words.

So we set out and blitzed through the smaller one fairly quickly and were already muddy and soaked.  But we had fun, and then set out into the bigger one, which again we had all to ourselves so it was pretty fun. After a few comparisons to the movies Signs and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and some shouted Avada Kedavra's, we split up and found the 12 signposts and helped each other out.  We then found the bell, rang it a few times and headed back to the entrance.  When we got there we started to look at the letters we'd gathered (A L E M R E Y S A E C M) and the same man in the tractor came by again, stopped and asked how we got on.  We told him we'd just finished and were starting to look at the letters. He said he'd give us a clue: "Áras an Uachtaráin" Which made it super easy. Well, maybe not easy if you're not Irish or live in Ireland. Nevertheless, James, the 9-year-old was the first of the brothers to get it. Overall it was a good experience, the boys had fun, and I'd definitely do it again. Here are some pics (only had the cell phone):