The King this week offered a glimpse at what visitors heading to Sandringham next year can expect – including a brand new maze to get lost in – after showing Country Life magazine around the gardens he’s spent three years renovating.
When Charles, 76, took over running the Norfolk estate from the late Duke of Edinburgh in 2017, he vowed to make the manicured green spaces around the historic royal property ‘pleasure gardens’ that both visitors and his own family could enjoy.
Tourists have long been able to tour the regal house and 60-acre gardens, which sit in 20,000 acres of Royal Parkland, but 2026 will be the first time visitors can see the fruits of the three-year garden makeover, which was personally led by the King.
While the estate closes to visitors during the colder months of the year, royal fans will get the chance to see his horticultural handiwork close up next April, when the house and gardens re-open to visitors until October.
In new photographs showcasing how the regal green space now looks, taken by photographer Millie Pilkington for this month’s Country Life magazine, the King explained how the maze will be likely be a highlight for those who make the journey to Norfolk.
His Majesty spent hours hiding and playing in a maze on the estate when he was a boy, but it was removed many decades ago – but the fun-loving King has reinstalled a new version of it in the formal gardens..
The new labyrinth at Sandringham is the third Royal maze, with two others made recently by the King at Dumfries House in Ayrshire and Balmoral in Aberdeenshire.
The monarch once told broadcaster and Country Life columnist Alan Titchmarsh ‘There’s nothing more enjoyable than getting lost in a maze’.
Sandringham spruce-up: Tickets to tour Sandringham’s new gardens are likely to cost around £15, when the King opens the doors to the revamped green space next spring
Sandringham, once dubbed ‘the most comfortable house in England’ has been open to the public since 1977, and tours of the house include a chance to visit eight ground-floor rooms, which look largely as they would have done in the Edwardian period.
Tourists can also glimpse objects d’art that have been collected by and gifted to members of The Royal Family, with pieces including collections of Meissen porcelain and Minton china.
The site was first listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Sant Dersingham’, with five monarchs residing at Sandringham over the decades.
Gardens only access in 2025 cost £15, while a combined garden and house ticket was priced at £25. Tickets for next spring are yet to be released, according to the Sandringham estate website.
King Charles has been making his mark on the Sandringham estate which is the Christmas retreat of the Royal family, since taking over the running of it from his late father, Prince Philip, in 2017.
Country Life editor-in-chief Mark Hedges praised the King’s horticultural project, saying: ‘Over the past three years, His Majesty The King has overseen a remarkable restoration of the gardens at Sandringham – reviving historic landscapes, reimagining formal parterres and creating new spaces of reflection and natural beauty for visitors to enjoy.’
The King has personally overseen the renovation of the gardens at the Norfolk estate, with a 400 yard-long magnolia walk and a new maze among the additions (The King pictured leaving church at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in July)
The magazine described Sandringham’s 60 acres of ‘pleasure gardens’, surrounded by woods and parkland, as a ‘showcase of the finest designs’ with the King rebuilding the formal areas with a sundial garden, a topiary garden inspired by Charles’s boyhood memories of Queen Alexandra’s ornamental garden at Sandringham’s Dairy Cottage, and a maze.
He has also introduced a 400 yard-long (366m) magnolia walk planted with hundreds of different varieties including many of his personal favourites.
‘The scale, the speed and the importance of what he has already achieved cannot be overemphasised,’ the magazine said.
He has also been busy turning Sandringham into a fully organic estate, sustained by manure from herds of cattle and flocks of sheep instead of chemical fertiliser.
The full feature on the restoration of Sandringham appears in this week’s edition of Country Life magazine, on sale now.
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How you can tour the King’s revamped ‘pleasure gardens’ at Sandringham estate – and get lost in the maze
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