Part Treasure Hunt, part Whodunnit.   Explore the grounds of the Abbey, find the cryptic clues, avoid the red herrings, piece the important information together and discover which Monk stole the Abbot’s Sacred Scrolls… and where he’s hidden them.  A multi-layered problem solving task which is a real test of strategic planning, lateral thinking and communication.

NB: available at ALL venues, not just Missenden Abbey.

The ultimate test in teamwork and collaboration. All participants work together to build a tower of wooden blocks using the ‘crane and rope’ equipment.  Strategy, planning, trust and flexibility are all involved. Depending on how the team performs, other obstacles can be introduced (eg. blindfolding team members, imposing a no-talking rule, introducing a secret saboteur).  The current record is a tower 6 blocks tall. Can your team beat this?

Teams are provided with a map of the village of Great Missenden and a list of clues in 5 categories – Roald Dahl, creative, scavenger hunt, numbers, words.  Some (difficult) answers are worth more points to the team than other (easy) ones. So what’s your plan? High risk, difficult questions or playing it safe?  Oh and there’s a strict time limit too.  This activity is great for bringing out the different skill sets that exist between colleagues and finding a way of playing to everyone’s strengths. 

Each of the participants is given one of the round large-format picture cards that, together, form a coherent picture story. They are not allowed to show their card to the others. By describing their scene, the participants discover the correct order of the pictures. At the end, all of the pictures are placed simultaneously on the floor. The group can then enjoy the visual ‘wow effect’.

Using a set of large (and quite heavy) wooden skis, teams must navigate their way through our obstacle course, with slalom and “high jump” sections.  Leadership and communication are absolutely essential to success here.  

only available at Missenden Abbey

An outdoor treasure hunt, with two / three levels of problem solving – finding the treasure, solving the puzzles and then completing the Connect 4 grid.  In two teams, participants must solve the cryptic clues to identify sites where Giant Connect 4 discs have been hidden.  Each disk contains a letter and once all the discs have been found, the teams must unravel the letters to solve the ultimate clue.  Teamwork, delegation, strategy are all vital. We’re also likely to witness dirty tricks, spying and double-crossing!

Your goal is to create a way of communicating with your blindfolded colleague in order to instruct them to collect specific objects within the zone and place them in the finish ‘bucket’.

There are 6 musical instruments available for you to use.  You can choose to work with as many or as few as you wish, BUT every person can only ‘play’ one instrument.

No other form of communication is allowed

This is a physical activity designed to get people moving and quickly create a sense of energy. Teams must transport the wooden marble from the starting line to the finishing bucket using the very small half-pipe tubes. Easy… er no. The marble must be moving forwards constantly and you’re not allowed to walk when the marble is in your pipeline – and team members must share the pipelines and there are obstacles to avoid too.  

This is a team communication and information-sharing activity.  Through a process of elimination and logic, the team must solve a ‘matrix puzzle’ using the information presented to them on cards.  However, there is a twist. Nothing can be written down. The group must find new ways of remembering complex information and manage the task to completion within a tight time limit.

A fun, energetic, icebreaker style activity where people have to quickly learn a new set of rules. We split your group into 4 smaller units, each seated around a table. Good performance wins you tokens. Poor performance loses you tokens. How quickly can you assimilate all of the information you need to success at this task?  This activity guarantees plenty of laughs as people struggle to sort the valuable information from the red herrings. 

A treasure hunt with a difference. Teams are given a list of weird and wonderful things to collect – harder to find items are worth more points. It’s against-the-clock, so what’s your strategy?  Where can you find "something blue that doesn't fit in this bag?" or "something with a strong smell"... (they get worse!)

A fast-paced, loud and frenetic activity for 2 large teams.  Everyone picks a (Scrabble) tile from a bag (without seeing it) and then have a very limited time to join up with their team-mates’ letters in order to form a 4 letter word (or longer).  Great for encouraging skills around communication, listening, creativity and leadership.

Teams must race to transfer as many eggs* as possible from one side of the ‘river bank’ to the other, as quickly as possible.  This activity is played over a series of different rounds, with increasingly difficult rules, blindfolds and time limits.  Great for teams that like a bit of light competition, strategy, rule-bending and loud fun.

*please note – plastic eggs only!  No real eggs will be harmed in the playing of this activity

Yes, a quiz – but one where you don’t sit still.  Played as teams or individuals, participants are asked a series of questions with 4 possible answers (A, B, C and D), but they don’t write anything down – they indicate their answer by moving to stand next to the corresponding letter.  Just before the answer is revealed they get a chance to “runaround” and change their mind.  Lots of opportunity for bluff, tactics and sneaky tricks.  All those who get the answer right get a token.  The player or team with the most tokens at the end wins the prize.   We can make this more bespoke for you by including quiz rounds relating to your business, your competitors, “what you know about your MD?” etc.

Using the templates provided, one player describes a series of simple (but unusual) geometric shapes for their team to draw / replicate.  Sounds easy, but is surprisingly tricky – especially given the tight time limits and other restrictions we impose.  Can be played simultaneously with 2 or more teams – with either individual or group participation.  This will really test communication and listening skills.

Teams are given a set of facts that they must piece together to solve a particular problem. The question is quite specific, but deliberately cryptic - “Which organisation is this?”   Deciding which facts are relevant, which are red herrings and whether any information is missing is the key to this problem-solving activity.  

The Tea Puzzle looks simple but is deceptively difficult. Difficult to describe without giving away a spoiler.  Trust us.  A problem solving activity with a variety of possible solutions, but only one correct answer!  It’s a real test of creative and lateral thinking. No-one has solved this in less than 10 minutes so far..  

An Escape-Room style adventure, but you're not inside a room.  You're exploring the grounds of Missenden Abbey looking for codes that unlock padlocks, keys that open boxes and clues to piece together to find the only way to safely escape from the Abbey and the evil Abbot. 

NB: available at ALL venues, not just Missenden Abbey.