If you find yourself in the Peak District and fancy a weatherproof excursion, you could do worse than a trip to Blue John Cavern. The scenery on the drive makes for a pleasant journey too.
The cavern is named after the semiprecious mineral, Blue John. It’s a rare form of fluorite and is also the rarest mineral in Britain. It was allegedly discovered by the Romans, although the vessels rumoured to have been Blue John were from elsewhere in the world, and Castleton is the only place it can be found. Even more curious, the origin of the colour remains a mystery, despite much investigation. In more modern times, it was discovered in 1750 in Treak Cliff. Within ten years, sixteen mines were supplying the factories making ornaments from the stone. It was used to make vases, goblets, even fire surrounds.
Soon, as you can imagine, with only one source and the high demand for the objects, especially during the Victorian era, it was soon mined out. Some small pieces are still occasionally mined, but they are only big enough to make into jewellery.
What has remained of legacy of the intensive mining are the caverns, some of which are open to the public, for a charge, of course, to visit. The Blue John Cavern is one of these. When your birthday falls in winter and you fancy a day out, options are limited to something indoors thanks to the great British weather. But a trip down an old mine is something different to do.
The cavern is fairly easy to get to from the A623. There’s a decent amount of parking which isn’t too far a walk. But this isn’t the attraction for you if you aren’t fairly fit.
We had a lovely young man as our guide. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision, so we were going for the last tour. You can’t prebook, so we aimed to arrive with ten minutes to spare. This wasn’t enough and the tour had kicked off early as they assumed that nobody else would be coming. We were soon caught up with the other couple and hadn’t missed much. I suppose the lesson is to arrive very early.
You quickly realise that this isn’t something you’d do if you aren’t fairly fit. There are a lot of steps down and it soon dawns on you that there are also going to be a lot of steps on the way back to the surface.
Our guide was very knowledgeable about the mining, Blue John and the geology of the mine. He was very engaging. There are several stopping points on the way down to listen to information about the mine and Blue John. One thing that you might want to do is save any questions for the return trip. You’ll be glad you did.
Now, earlier, I said it was a weatherproof trip. It is, but when it’s been raining outside, it rains inside. The rain water drips through the rocks and you get spots where there is indoor rain. It’s rather charming and the guide will steer you around it.
Although the cavern was created by the mining industry, there are also pockets of natural cave and there are fossils as well as the Blue John deposits to see. It’s surprisingly interesting. Or our lovely guide made it so.
The return journey was made easier by stops and little talks, so if you aren’t very fit, there’s an opportunity to catch your breath. As mentioned earlier, this is your opportunity to ask all the questions you’ve thought about and use it as an opportunity to catch your breath. There are quite a lot of steps to climb to get out.
There’s a little gift kiosk at the entrance which sells some Blue John jewellery and a few other bits. It closes before the tour ends, so if you want to buy a memento and you’re on the last tour, choose your piece before you go down the mine. The staff are as lovely as our guide.
All round a pleasant jaunt and if the weather is good, there are also some lovely areas for walking in the area.
