National Stone Centre — Attraction in Derbyshire Dales

Wow what a wonderful place for the whole family! We visited during the Easter holidays and it wasn't too busy at all. There were Easter activities for the children laid out on tables such as colouring, and my children were kindly given chocolate eggs by the staff! A beautiful setting for the large indoor/outdoor cafe with tasty home made cakes and quality coffee (Lots of lunch options too). There is something for every age- comfy sofas, boxes of toys for younger children to keep them amused if its raining, and a decent outside playground if its not! They have a 'panning for gold' activity which my children loved- for just £3! There were Microscopes and various things of interest on display to look at inside too. The gift shop is very reasonably priced, with lots to look at, and a large selection of crystals/gemstones. Outside, there is a short geo trail to follow which is very well maintained, with information boards. At the end, all three of my children ( aged 5, 15, 19) enjoyed the hands on activity where they attempted to build a wall with the rocks placed on the grass for this purpose. Our visit lasted 4 hours and we didn't even have a chance to enjoy the walk around the centre! Last, but certainly not least- the staff were very attentive, friendly and kind hearted... One lovely lady in particular! She went over and above interacting with my 5 year old and gave him a lot of her time. He already wants to go back! Thank you for a memorable day to all at the national...

We were in the area, and had an afternoon to kill, we saw this place on Google maps and thought we would give it a go, there was a car park charge but it wasn't silly prices. (can't remember, so must have been cheap). As we arrived at the visitor centre, we were met by a lovely lady who asked if we'd been before and we said no, she explained where everything was, (small museum, café, toilets, start of the trail) also said there was a map of the area and explaining things about it for a £1 which we bought and can defiantly say it was the best £1 we ever spent. Everything else was FREE yes FREE, we really didn't think we would enjoy it as much as we did, but we had a great time, the trail isn't that big but definitely informative, especially with the map, there are information boards at every stop but the map (£1) gave you a bit more information. We really enjoyed it and couldn't believe we spent 3 hours just walking, reading and talking about it, the 16 different types of stone walls (BUILT) was brilliant to see, there were kids there trying to build their own stone walls, (which was great), we would say that if you were interested in this sort of thing and in the area or just passing you should definitely call...

I visited the Blue Lagoon Café today and ordered herbal tea. The staff started discussing if they had put the right tea bags in the display jar and one picked out a tea bag and stuffed it under her nose for an identifying sniff.  She threw it back in the jar and then got it back out of the same jar for me. I said 'I don't want that one I'll have this instead' pointing towards a different jar. She got me another from the same jar. 'No I don't want that one now' I repeated.

Understandably I didn't want a teabag from a potentially contaminated jar.

Very slow service on both the occasions I visited, probably busy sniffing everything first. 🤧

Your staff need to do a refresher health and hygiene course. I would have loved to try the cakes but I am not even tempted to do so after today.

The Café does have a lovely view and ambience. I hope the staff...