Jewellery Making Experience and Treak Cliff Cavern Self-Guided Audio Tour

This Experience gives you the opportunity to work with our craftsmen and gives you a 'hands on' unique experience of Blue John Stone.

This experience is purely workshop based, you will be able to choose from an array of pre-mined pieces of Blue John stone in the workshop, where our craftspeople will help you to turn your chunk of Blue John into a polished specimen on our grinding wheels, and sand it with different grades of abrasive paper until ready for the final polishing stage. After a short break for a hot drink made from our naturally filtered cave water you will return to the workshop to create a freeform Blue John pendant on cord, our craftspeople will supervise while you polish it to a lovely shine, and attach a leather cord. Then you can try your necklace on and adjust the length to fit. Since each piece of Blue John Stone has distinctive pattern and colour combinations, you’ll be creating very own piece of unique jewellery.

Treak Cliff Cavern is a genuine wonder in the heart of the Peak District. Treak Cliff Hill is the only place in the world where Blue John Stone occurs naturally. The self-guided audio tour will explain how Blue John Stone was formed, miners in the 1750s constructed a tunnel using only hand tools to reach the Blue John Stone deposits within the hill, and you will see incredible veins of the stone across the cavern roof and hear about the recent discovery of the ‘lost vein’ of Blue John Stone that had been hidden for almost 70 years. Your audio-guide will point out fossils in the limestone rock which formed the hillside above you some 330 million years ago. The tour descends deeper into the hill where you will experience the water worn chambers of natural limestone cavern formations. Multi-coloured flowstone adorns the walls of Aladdin’s Cave. We also have some of the finest stalactites in the Peak District that decorate Fairyland and the Dream Cave. The most famous formation being “The Stork”. The walking tour lasts around 45 minutes and you can stop and take photographs and go at your own pace. As you come out of the Cavern the view of Castleton and the Hope Valley stretches for 10 miles in front of you. Our small museum houses a wealth of historic Blue John Stone treasures collected by the owners, and displayed for everyone to enjoy. Discover more about the formation and history of the Cavern and the family who care for it today.

Be aware we are on a steep hillside so there is no wheelchair access to or inside the Cavern, and some areas underground are low and narrow.

Just a couple of things to bear in mind before your visit. Depending on the weather it can be very cold up here so please do dress for the weather and if its been raining leading up to your visit it may also be very wet in the cavern itself.

Itinerary Experience running order:

Arrive at the cavern entrance 15minutes before you experience is due to start.

Approx 3 hours workshop

Taking the audio tour.

Before you arrive, please download the Treak Cliff Cavern app in advance of your visit.
You may want to bring a portable power bank or headphones to use with your smartphone or tablet when you come to visit.
All Cavern tours are self led.
The Cavern tour is approximately 45 minutes.
The temperature underground is a constant 11° centigrade/ 52° Fahrenheit.
There are 80 steps leading up to the cavern entrance.
There are 196 steps in the Cavern with no more than 30 in one place.
There are low and narrow points with the lowest being 4 foot 6 (137cm) in the entrance tunnel.
Allow plenty of time to travel and park in Castleton, especially so at weekends and school holidays.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Inclusions
What's Included

🧰 Equipment - Workshop equipment, PPE and tools, Blue John Stone.

📋 Other - Self-guided audio tour (using your own Smart phone)

What you'll need
🧤 Warm Clothing - The temperature inside the Cavern is a constant 11 degrees Centigrade, which can feel very cold, or occasionally less cold compared with the outside seasonal temperature !!!

☂️ Waterproofs - Water drips from the cavern ceilings all the time, but you should dress for the weather conditions at the time of your visit, because the Entrance is on a steep exposed hillside, 10 minutes climb from the car park.

🥤 Drink - A hot or cold drink is included

📋 Other - Suitable footwear, boots or wellingtons, Your smartphone or tablet fully charged ready to download our App for the audio tour if you haven't already downloaded it. You may want to bring a portable power bank, headphones or Blue tooth earpiece

Before you arrive, please search the Apple App store or Google Play store for the Treak Cliff Cavern App

REMEMBER you may want to bring a portable power bank, headphones or Bluetooth earpiece to use with your smartphone or tablet when you come to visit. We look forward to welcoming you !!

Inclusions
What's Included
🧰 Equipment - Blue John Stone, materials and equipment
📋 Other - Self-guided audio tour (using your own Smart phone)

What you'll need
🧤 Warm Clothing - The temperature inside the Cavern is a constant 11 degrees centigrade.
☂️ Waterproofs - Water drips from the cavern ceilings all the time, but you should dress for the weather conditions, the entrance is on a steep exposed hillside, 5 minutes walk from the car park.
📋 Other - Suitable footwear, Your smartphone or tablet fully charged ready to download our App for the audio tour if you haven't already downloaded it. You may want to bring a portable power bank and headphones.

Jewellery Making Experience and Treak Cliff Cavern Self-Guided Audio Tour

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