BLUE JOHN CAVERN
   
Home of Blue John stone, most of this cavern, much modified by mining can be viewed on the tourist trip.  The tour commences with a short flight of steps into a chamber where various miners' implements are on display.  This is followed by a long flight of steps down into the natural caverns.  Adjacent to these steps is a shaft which can be viewed from above and below.  The first large chamber is the Grand Crystallised Cavern, dome shaped and coloured with many minerals.  This is followed by the Waterfall Cavern so called because one side of it is covered in flowstone resembling a waterfall.
Passing the Balancing Rock you come to Lord Mulgrave's Dining Room, where his Lordship entertained his miners to a meal.  The tour ends at the largest chamber in Blue John Cavern, the Variegated Cavern, 200 feet (60m) wide at the far end of which can be seen stalactites.
     
 
Blue John Cavern entrance
Entrance to Blue John Cavern
Miners' implements in Blue John Cavern
Miners' implements in Blue John Cavern
Shaft in Blue John Cavern
Shaft by the stairway in Blue John Cavern
Grand Crystallised Cavern
Grand Crystallised Cavern
One of the few formations
Some of the few stalactites in Blue John Cavern
The Balancing Rock
The Balancing Rock
Vein of Blue John
Vein of Blue John in situ in the Cavern
Lord Mulgrave's Dining Room
Lord Mulgrave's Dining Room
The Variegated Cavern
The Variegated Cavern at the end of the tour

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