Blue John

It was the grand-kids birthday last weekend and we decided to meet in Castleton and take them down a mine. Seemed like a good idea at the time. This the view from the pub where we had lunch. We don't have hills in my part of the country so it was nice to see these.

There are several interesting mines and caverns around Castleton (Derbyshire, UK) and we chose to go down the Blue John mine. Blue John is the mineral only found in this area, it is purple and

ocre coloured and very delicate.

It is very damp down there and we saw 100's of stalagmites

We went down about 300 slippery stone steps and then we had to climb back up again. The kids were fine but me and B had to take it a bit slower, by the time we got back out into daylight, everyone had been in the gift shop and ordered tea and coffee :)

Electric lighting was only installed fairly recently but that has given enough light to allow moss to grow in the depths. I love the lime green.