Diamond Caverns — Attraction in Glasgow

Yes, I am only giving 3 stars, but let me explain! This place is 100% worth the visit. I actually found this place to be way cooler than Mammoth Caves! I walked in an a tour was just getting ready to leave and they had 2 spots left, so I quickly paid to go. I was then told I could not carry my small fanny pack down. So I had to run that back out to the car. So I paid, we go down, and they then tell us a bunch of rules, one of which is no filming? We could take photos, but no video is allowed . . . what is this. . . the 70s? I am a social media content creator and I REALLY wanted to share this with my audience so that they could then come and visit as well, but nope. No filming allowed. Seems very very odd to me. That is my main reason for 3 stars. Had I known before I paid, I probably wouldn't have gone. I would have picked a different cave to visit.

All that being said, the staff was kind, the tour guide was a bit bored with her job it seemed, and her talk was very rehearsed, which is totally understandable. You walk in a pack of people. You cannot go ahead, and you cannot stay behind. You must stay with the staff. Everything down here is super fragile, and you can't touch anything! Again, this is a living ecosystem, so keep your kids close and don't touch!!

As I said this place was amazing! I just don't understand the no filming rule.

July 2024 EDIT: The people who run Diamon Caverns apparently responded to my reivew, quite a while ago, and then responded again (not sure why it was changed) I understand why carrying bags isn't allow, and I understand why the tour groups are kept small.

Now you said that when it comes to filming, you don't allow it as you have to pay attention where you are walking. Filming on a cell phone or small pocket camera, isn't like it used to be. It just as easy as taking a photo!

No content creato "needs" to create content in your privately owned cave and we would have had no way to contact you 2 weeks ahead of time, as we spotted you as we drove by. So it wasn't a big planned thing.

The cave wasn't super busy. Yes I was #19 on the tour, but there was no one waitng. I am sure there are times where it is very busy, but I must have got lucky in the middle of August.

I love how you wrote WITH RELEVANT FAN BASE in big capital letters. So you want only cave content creators? Seems odd. Like I said, I enjoyed the cave. And honestly, me filming is much more careful then the kids that want to touch literally everything. BUT it's your privatley owned cave. So you can do whatever you want! :)

In case they remove it, this is whatt they wrote" "The rules for carrying bags etc into the cave are for the protection of the environment, also for the safety of our visitors. This is also one of the many reasons we keep our tour groups small (20 persons). As for the filming. It is mostly a safety issue, people need to be VERY cautious about where they are stepping. It is also to protect the enjoyment of the 19 other people on the tour. If content creators would like to make content at our privately owned cave, they need to contact us ahead of time so we can go through all the releases etc. As you seen when you visited the area and its caves are extremely busy. We are very glad we could get you underground and that you enjoyed the cave itself. Hopefully I have shed some light on the many reasons we have chosen to not freely allow filming. For content creators *WITH RELEVANT FAN BASE who may want to film at our location please contact us with your request and stats at least 2 weeks...

By paragraph: My personal experience, staff and established customer atmosphere, and helpful tips that truly aren’t important enough for them to suggest but I would personally like to give to anyone looking at stopping by.

I do not understand why people are complaining about the physical requirements of the tour. I am 6’2”, a somewhat muscular 430 pounds. Bad asthma, a bad knee, a slight lower back problem, and slight balance issues from a past concussion, most of these issues stemming from football in high school. I made it through just fine and at no point did I feel unsafe. They make it very clear before you purchase your ticket what you are getting yourself into; it is about a half a mile long, 350 total steps to move up and down levels within the cave, and I would estimate the lowest ceiling we encountered (this is where height factors in) made me hunker down from 6’2” to about 5’6”.

We visited on Thursday the 27th for the 2pm tour. I wish I would’ve paid more attention to names, but I would first like to give my appreciation to the lady in the gift shop who sold us the tickets. She did not suffocate us attempting to sell other things like a lot of other places in town did, and she was extremely kind and informative when we approached her with questions. I would also like to extend that appreciation to the young girl who gave the actual tour. She was also incredibly kind, very thorough when she would stop and show off the formations in the cave, and it was very reassuring for safety to know that if we were coming up on a slicker part of the path or a steeper set of stairs that she would let us know well in advance. If she ends up seeing this, I would like to apologize that since we couldn’t recall her name after we had finished the tour (we were still exhausted from the drive from Ohio) that we have been respectfully referring to her as Cave Bacon Girl lol. She was great!

Now for tips and stuff. •If you are skin and bones, you can probably wear whatever you want. The temperature in the cave is in the mid 50°s, but since it is a “wet” cave, it is humid. I wore basketball shorts, but made the mistake of wearing a hoodie and ended up sweating like crazy. •Within reason, they still hold tours on rainy days. At a certain point in the tour, there is a hole in the ceiling. If there is heavy rain on the day you go, or there was heavy rain on the few days leading up to the day you go, the hole will spew a solid stream of water out like a small but steady/fast waterfall directly onto the path, and because of where it’s at, there is rails on both sides and there would be no way to avoid it. We did not experience this, but our helpful guide let us know about our luck lol. So check the weather, pack dry clothes to change into after, watch your electronics, and maybe spend a little less time on your hair that particular morning. •No purses, backpacks, or any other types of bags are allowed down into the cave. However, instead of leaving a purse in the car, they have a good amount of storage lockers within the building for use. It costs a dollar in quarters, which in my experience is very cheap for on site convenience storage. Be sure to read the instructions on the locker unit because there is a process to properly shut and lock the locker, before getting the key out which you take into the cave with you.

Overall, I have no complaints about our experience at Diamond Caverns. The staff was kind, the tour was fun and informational, and the cave itself had cool formations and was pleasing to the eye....

Extremely abrupt and dismissive guest services lady at the ticket counter. We arrived and a tour had just left, so she said that another one would start in 25 minutes.

We talked amongst ourselves right there with her listening, and decided we’d run and grab some food and come back in time for the next tour, and we’d buy our tickets then. She heard all of this, along with another gal at the ticket counter in the guest shop.

We came back in time for the next tour, and we came in excited and said “we’re back! Has the tour left yet?”

The lady with the long brown ponytail told us “there’s no tour, you didn’t buy your tickets.” I was confused and asked if it had just left, and she jumped all over me and said “I told you clearly that if you don’t buy tickets when you’re here there’s no tour.”

Our group was very confused and we looked at each other because none of us understood that if we didn’t buy the tickets 25 minutes before that we couldn’t come back and buy them for the upcoming one that would happen in 30 minutes.

You know when someone attacks you and it makes your chest tighten and it’s incredibly uncomfortable and everyone is stunned and quiet…. This lady made us all feel that way.

Then I said, “no I’m just confused because we were talking about coming back, and it wasn’t clear that we couldn’t just pay when we came back for the 10am tour.”

She said “I TOLD YOU. I know you didn’t get it.”

So I paused for 5 seconds and said “it seems like you’re really upset, when we just didn’t understand.” She said “because you came in here and attacked me!!”

Totally stunned. That’s not at all what we did. We were in shock.

Then I looked at the brown haired guy who looked like he was trying to hide behind a pole or wanted to sink into the floor, and I asked him “are you the tour guide, and are you free now?” And she spoke for him and said “yes he is but this is how we run our business, and we can’t take you now because you didn’t buy tickets 25 minutes ago.”

They wouldn’t let us purchase tickets and go on the tour with the tour guide standing right there, with no other customers or tours booked.

This is why businesses go out of business. We were never rude, just confused, and they had the time, the tour guide, and wouldn’t sell us tickets unless we all sat around and waited for another 30-40 minutes staring at each other.

It’s one thing to have a misunderstanding with someone and be able to talk through it and come to a healthy understanding… but this was a full on onslaught from this lady.

Had she been kind, we may have bought tickets and waited. But the tension was so thick coming at us we were very uncomfortable.

If she’s the manager, I’m sorry for her employees. If she’s just a hired employee, she’s doing a lot of damage to this business...