This place had been on my to do list for awhile. Me and my partner came across Blue John Cavern when on our way to visit Mam Tor, it is only a couple of seconds down the road from there and I always saw the signs for it and wanted to take a visit.
How to get there
If you type Blue John Cavern into your maps on your phone it should come up with the address, we used Waze maps on our phone and that takes you directly there. It takes around 2 hours to get there from Peterborough which is where me and my partner live. The postcode is S33 8WP. There are parking spaces just opposite the shop/hut you have to walk to which is in the picture above. Once there, you must go into the shop in order to buy tickets unless you are paying by cash then you can just pay at the gate as you walk in. There is a tour every so often, the person in the shop will tell you when the next tour is, we only had to wait for 15 minutes.
The Blue John Cavern is famous for being home to eight of the fourteen known varieties of Blue John stone, it is really quite interesting how the stone actually got its name but I will leave that for the guide to tell you. There is a shop just outside of the gate where you can buy your own Blue John Stone to take home, I think it's a really nice souvenir to remember your trip by.
As you can see it is honestly a beautiful stone and is found throughout the caves. They do guided tours of the cavern throughout the day which take about 45 minutes to an hour. There are a few caverns on the tour you get taken into, one of the caverns being 150 feet high and 30 feet wide! It really is a beautiful place to be. There is a lot of looking up to the ceiling required in order to appreciate the beauty. The guide will talk through all aspects of the cavern with you, giving you facts and answering any questions you have about the caverns.
The only thing to be aware of is the amount of steps. In total there are 240 steps, baring in mind you have to walk down the 240 steps, and then back up them all at the very end of the tour. So be sure to keep this in mind if your planning on visiting because it is tiring work! the guide we had was great though and made sure people had plenty of time to rest throughout and he wouldn't leave anyone behind! Quoting his words 'we are only as fast as the slowest person in the group'.
It is great for educational purposes as well as just going for the pure love of Caverns! There are lots of old mining tools and bones they have found throughout the years and the guide was very knowledgeable on everything about the caverns. It was amazing to think that someone actually used one of the Caverns once as a dining area back in the day.
As well as the cavern there is a lovely shop just outside the gate that sells jewellery using the famous stone you find within the cave. There is also a cafe nearby.
Overall I think it was a lovely day out and was totally worth the long drive there. You could definitely make a day out of it and there was a fair few people not even going into the caverns and just hiking in the area, there are plenty of paths that go off in different directions for you to follow. Me and my partner didn't do any walking this time round but we will be sure to go back there.
If you do go I really hope you enjoy it and learn a lot like we did.
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