Enter the lair of the cave spider! (Treak Cliff Cavern)

Member Name: markos9

Product:	Treak Cliff Cavern
Date:	04/04/09 (349 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful show cave.

Disadvantages: If you don't like spiders, it may not suit you.

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 to the cliff is a stiff climb up several steep flights of steps. Guided tours are performed quite frequently, so you should not have to wait long after buying your ticket. The tour lasts about forty minutes and takes you through a series of natural caves, with some wonderful sights to be seen along the way.

Almost as soon as you enter the cave, the tour guide points out a large vein of Blue John. This looks quite unusual, set amongst the white limestone of the cave walls. This material has been sought after for over 250 years because of its beauty and rarity. Blue John is extremely expensive. One of the lights in the cave has a small, damaged Blue John bowl next to it. Even this broken bowl is worth £2,000.

Mining is a hazardous business; in one of the first caves, you're shown a large pillar holding up the roof of the cavern. This pillar is special, as it's made of Blue John. The value of the pillar has been set at two million pounds! The temptation to mine the pillar to make it thinner (but less stable) must have been extraordinarily strong to the early miners who worked this cave!

Aladdin's cave has a really unusual set of stalagmites called the seven dwarves. Apparently, it's good luck to touch the largest of these (happy!), so most people on the tour pat 'him' on the 'head' as they go past. A weird material called flowstone is also present in this cave. This is a build up of calcium, deposited from water over many thousands of years. The contaminants in the calcium give rise to many different colours, giving a weird effect.

The most impressive cave (to me) was "Fairy Land". This has many thousands of coloured stalactites clinging to the ceiling of the cave. At this point, the tour guide turns off the lights and the stalactites are lit by concealed lighting, giving the appearance of a fairy grotto, a beautiful effect and worth visiting the cave for this alone.

The last cave is called "Dome of St Paul's" as this massive cavern has a domed roof, looking a bit like that of St Paul's cathedral. When you're inside this cave, it's worth remembering that the caves have been hollowed out of the solid Derbyshire rock, by the power of water alone. This process has taken millions of years, using billions of gallons of water, to allow you to stand where you are now, amazing!

From here, you make your way back through a slightly different route to the cave exit which is much lower down the hill from the entrance.

Here, there's a final surprise. My niece stopped about ten feet from the exit and pointed to the roof, about 18 inches above her head. White ovals could be seen dangling from the ceiling. Next to each oval was a large spider! We'd found the lair of the "cave spider", one of the largest spiders in Britain (the ovals were the spiders' egg sacs).

As I'm a bit taller than my niece, these were about three inches above my head. These spiders were surprisingly pretty, not hairy like house spiders, with subtly beautiful colours. If you don't like spiders, however, please note that the only way out of the cave involves walking underneath them!

Treak Cliff Cavern is an excellent show cave with some wonderful geological features. As the cavern contains Blue John, found nowhere else on earth, this makes this cave almost unique and well worth a visit.

There's a shop where you can buy some (very expensive) Blue John ornaments as well as other typical tourist fare. The shop also sells hot drinks and a few snacks. If you buy a cup of tea, it may taste a little strange. This is because the water is drawn directly from the cave, giving it quite an unusual taste.

The prices are not excessive at £7.95 for adults and £4.00 for children, or £22.00 for a family ticket.

Summary: A virtually unique tour.