Where's the fun in that? iPhone cheats crack Britain's biggest hedge maze in minutes

Visitors to one of Britain's biggest mazes are finding their way out in record times - by cheating on their iPhones.

Adventure seekers usually spend anything up to 90 minutes getting lost in the Hedge Maze at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, before finding the exit. But staff at the attraction have noticed people are working their way round the labyrinth of two miles of pathways and 16,000 yew trees in just a matter of minutes.




Technology has finally caught up with the giant yew maze at Longleat house in Wiltshire - as visitors turn to their iPhones and BlackBerrys to download maps and find their way out in record time


And they discovered that many are using iPhones and BlackBerrys to look up an aerial view of the maze on Google Earth. The hand-held devices use GPS technology to pinpoint the exact location of the holder who then follows the online map to find the quickest route out.


Tim Bentley, attractions manager at Longleat said: 'The maze, whilst hugely popular, is also hugely frustrating as with all true mazes, it has been designed to confuse. 'I couldn't count the number of mobile phone calls we've had over the last few years from visitors who thought they'd never get out! 'But just recently we noticed more and more people were finding the exit a lot quicker than before but I didn't realise why until I went in there with my brother-in-law recently.




The maze features a labyrinth of two miles of pathways and 16,000 yew trees

'After about ten minutes of getting lost, he just said "I'm fed up with this'" and pulled out his iPhone which told him where he was and where he needed to go. 'We were out in next to no time. 'So I started to observe people going in the maze, especially younger ones, and noticed it was a bit of a trend. 'Although the hedges are 7ft tall, you quite often see people holding their phones aloft while looking for a signal or them standing on one of the six bridges with them. 'It's fascinating to see how mobile technology has come on and to learn that visitors are now using Google Earth to extract themselves from the maze.




A visitor turns to her iPhone to access Google Earth - and an escape route out of the maze

'I'm not sure what we can do. It might not be in the spirit of the maze but we can't very well tell our customers to turn their phones off when they go in. 'I guess that if they aren't spending as much time in the maze they have more time to enjoy the rest of the estate.'


More than 400,000 people get lost in the Longleat maze every year. Visitor Paul Roberts, 29, a mechanic from Bristol, said: 'I came here six years ago and spent more than an hour trying to find my way out. 'It was so frustrating that at one point I called a friend in London to see if he could look at a map of the maze online and direct me out but that didn't work. 'So I made sure that my iPhone was fully charged when I went in there this time round. 'I gave myself 15 minutes to try and find my way out by myself but after that I gave in and turned to my iPhone - it worked a treat.'



Longleat House is now home to the 7th Marquess of Bath and is widely regarded as one of the best examples of high Elizabethan architecture in Britain


From Daily Mail.


Is this 'cheating' or a clever use of technology?





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cheating....

They paid their admission fee, why should anyone care how they find their way around? They are only cheating themselves.

I've just had a look on GoogleEarth and I doubt anyone could plot a route out using that fuzzy image. Especially on a small mobile phone screen.

I think some journalist is telling porkies.

It is a good story non-the-less.....





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try Google images. Much clearer.