Treak Cliff Cavern

Treak Cliff Cavern is a show cave near the lovely town of Castleton in the Derbyshire Peak District. The cave is the home of the semi-precious stone "Blue John", found only in Treak Cliff, and the Blue John Caverns nearby. The name Blue John derives from the French "bleu et jaune", meaning blue and yellow. The mineral is a type of fluorspar through which oil has permeated under pressure, giving the stone a gorgeous blue hue, shot through with yellow veins. The mineral is extremely rare now, and only about 500 kilograms per year are mined from Treak Cliff. The cavern is easily reached from Castleton, but the entrance ...  Read the complete review

Treak Cliff Cavern can be found on the fringe of Derbyshire's Peak District town of Castleton. Cutting deep into the limestone hillside this is actually one of four different cave systems that penetrate this impressive landscape. This landscape and the caves were formed between 350 and 300 million years ago when this whole area was submerged under the sea. Treak Cliff Cavern is perhaps the least known of Castleton's caves, although it still attracts many thousands of visitors each year. This may have something to do with the fact that it is the least accessible and it is also much smaller than Peak Cavern, the largest cave here and the Blue John Cavern. ...  Read the complete review

We are told that there is only one place in the world where you can find the Blue John gemstone and that is in the hillside to the north of the town of Castleton in Derbyshire, England. You can see this gemstone in its natural surroundings in the caves of the Treak Cliff Cavern and learn all about its history during a visit to this showcave. In the 1750’s the local miners dug a tunnel into the hillside looking for Lead, and although at that time they did not find any Lead they found a dark mineral that they believed was Coal. When they examined the mineral more closely they discovered that it was not Coal, but that it was a blue translucent ...  Read the complete review