Blue John Cavern — Attraction in High Peak

We visited on the 15th August 2024. We been me, my wife and our three kids; a 7 year old, 3 year old and 18 months old. We chose here as it allowed young kids and toddlers.

In short if you have kids under 5 years old I cannot in any way recommend going here despite what they say!

Our guide was Nigel who was equally knowledgeable as he was rude. To be clear he set out 'his' rules clearly at the start which for the most part were for safety, no issues here at all. The issue we, well he had was with our 18 month old, clearly, he was going to make some noise, that's what little kids do and I understand that Nigel wanted the kids to be quiet so that he could give the other customers the knowledge as part of the tour. The issue was his zero tolerance to noise, and the way in which he made this very clear in front of everyone. Phrases such as 'If you can't keep him quiet you will need to leave' when he was just making noise to react to the things he was seeing were inappropriate at best. If I were to guess I would be confident in saying that Nigel doesn't have children and made it very clear he didn't want them on 'his' tour!

Now apart from a few slight remarks early on in the tour, I bumped my son's head which I felt dreadful about, we were at the back and sure enough Nigel shouted 'Is there a problem, do you need to take him back up'. I explained that he had just bumped his head and that's why he was upset. Now rather than showing ANY consideration he simply said 'if you can't keep him quite you can join the back of this tour heading back up'. At this point it was clear we were not welcome and my wife and two youngest headed back up whilst my eldest begged to stay on the tour. For clarification he wasn't screaming uncontrollably or preventing others from hearing what he had to say.

I have never been so belittled in all my life, embarrassed and after spending £50+ for the privilege I have to say I am really upset by the experience. It was so bad my wife was in tears. And no, I am not exaggerating. I do have to say the other guides were supportive and helpful, so I think we just pulled the short straw.

Oh, and there are zero refunds, even if you have been sent to the surface after 10 mins, you have...

Honestly, when we first arrived I thought "what a long trip to see such a sorrowfull looking little entrance shack, and expected nothing more than another rip off museum tour without much of note. there was a fifteen minute wait until the next tour, and honestly, despite the nice jewelerry and earings for sale though, the reception and shop made us feel like just driving off! anyway we paid for a tour, but there were no tickets given, and it all seemed a bit 'down at heel" really. I took a pee in the outside enclosed stainless trough which stunk of urine even though it was outside...and so all in all we were NOT IMPRESSED. HOWEVER, when we were asked through the entrance door by our guide "Brian" things got much better very quickly. it's a vast 50 minute tour which goes down about 100 metres (I think) and is an impressive sight. Details you would otherwise miss were skillfully pointed out by our guide Brian, who told us he also mines the blue john in tandem with giving tours. Personally I hate dogs, but my brothers dog was allowed on the tour, (which I think is wrong) in any event, I found it really educational and interesting . I would advise prospective customers to reserve judgement until after the tour...and I would strongly advise the management to make the extent of the tour more known, and to DEFINATELY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE AWFUL looking reception area. Try decent toilets, some waiting for the next tour chairs, and ask yourselves "why are we welcoming dogs on a cavern walk?" it is for obvious reasons unacceptable to most. Also get a payment card machine that WORKS..we almost drove for three hours to find we couldn't get in because we nearly never had enough cash! The card payment machine needs to be 100% working all the time. overall really enjoyed despite the...

The parking is a little tricky for this as there isn't much, but if you are lucky to get your car in, its def worth the visit. The cave entrance has a gated section, so you can leave bags and coats, whatevers, before you start your decent. There are A LOT of steps but saying that, I am disabled and managed it fine as they give you plenty of time to catch up and dont make you rush down. There are stages of the tour where you can gather in larger areas to enjoy the views while people catch up and the guide gives more info. The guides are lovely and clearly love their job as they are happy to share info to people who question them non stop. Looking at you people with kids you cannot keep quiet for two seconds. The groups are a bit large, so with the guide ahead, you can miss a lot of what they say (Especially with children yapping a lot. My kids were getting annoyed at the ones around us, so its not kids in general, its just the poorly behaved ones. Yes I am still annoyed) Maybe the cave guides could ask families to keep kids a little quieter so we can hear more??? The fees are not unreasonable for the time and guiding, its only fair and about what you expect to pay for a guided tour. You cannot do these caves alone, you have to go in a group. You wait by the entrance for a group to form, the groups leave at set times. There is a lovely gift shop with a large range of items, from pocket money things to great mineral specimens and jewelry containing blue john, and other items like book marks. As I mentioned, there are a lot of steps, and it can be slippery, so wear a coat that can handle dripping cave water and shoes with a bit of grip. I just had sneakers, and they were fine. A lovely and fun trip, good info, kind guides, patient people, a nice...