There are several wonderful caves and caverns around the Peak District National Park and I had the chance to visit one of them a few years ago, the Devil’s arse. This time, we visited another interesting cave, the Treak Cliffs Caverns.
The cave is also located close to Castleton and is well-known for the ornamental mineral, the Blue John, that is still currently excavated. The Blue John can also be found in another cave nearby, the Blue John Cavern. They extract the stone in small quantities, just enough to create beautiful jewellery pieces and ornaments. The Blue John came from the French “Bleu Jaune” (blue-yellow), and is a form a fluorite with stripes of purple/blue and yellowish colours, hence the name.
The cave is made of limestone and there is a lot of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as fossils in the cave, but the star of the show if of course the Blue John! The Pillar is the largest piece ever found and is on display. Our guide explained extensively how the miners dug the tunnel using only their hands to reach the Blue John veins hidden under the hill and it was really fascinating!
I would love to visit the other caves nearby, it seems they are all very different! At the end of the visit, we walked on top of the hill to have a gorgeous view of the valley
Darwin on the rocks and around the world 
This looks like a fun and interesting trip – I love cave tours. I have never heard of Blue John and would like to see the beautiful jewelry!
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I also love doing cave tours. I quite like the atmosphere you can find in caves. You can hear real silence and it’s very soothing
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Really like that cavern. Caves and caverns are so mysterious to me.
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Me too, I love the atmosphere of caverns!
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The cavern looks so beautiful, and look at all those Blue Johns everywhere. Are the icicle-looking things from the top Blue Johns too? Otuside, what a lovely view. Looks like those mountains could go on and on and on in the distance. The sheep must be loving every moment having that as their backyard :D
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The icicle are just stalagmites and made of limestone I think. The Blue John is just the shiny mineral that does through the limestone. It’s located in one of my favourite National Park in the UK : I love the Peak District!
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Are there fossils visible on one of your pictures? It’s fascinating how these little animals were preserved for so many years.
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It was full of fossils but the light was not very good and it was quite difficult to take close up :-) I agree, it’s quite fascinating to see them, forever trapped in the sone
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Beautiful Gin!
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I love the Peak District!
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Interesting post. I really cannot imagine digging a tunnel with bare hands. It’s so surreal!! The view of the surrounding valley is gorgeous! :-)
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It was fascinating to listen to these stories! The place is lovely and the Peak District is a wonderful place :-)
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We’ve done this tour too – really great to revisit in your post. Our guide was a former miner so he knew the cave very well and was fascinating (once you got used to his strong accent).
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They have amazing cave in the Peak District and their guided tour are really interesting!
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It’s fascinating to see how minerals color our planet. As for this cave, it seems like it’s covered in gold leaves. So beautiful!
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That cave was really pretty and the story behind the stone was also interesting!
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Fascinating!
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It was quite interesting to listen to the guide explaining all the story behind this stone :-)
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With such shapes I would make the mistake to think that it comes from “beau jaune” ^^
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I agree, but it was quite interesting to learn more about the story behind that name!
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