Treak Cliff Cavern

Definitely a Derbyshire bucket-​list visit.

According to my extended family (who also happen to be locals), Treak Cliff Cavern is THE cavern to visit when in Castleton. My family had just recently visited the other caverns in the area and they all proclaimed that this was the best cavern of them all. I only got a chance to visit Treak Cliff but I don’t feel like I missed out on the others because I thoroughly enjoyed Treak!
The trek up the stairs to get to the entry point into the cavern is a bit of climb but not impossible. There are railings and the steps are sturdy so take a break if you need to. Plus, the views of the Yorkshire countryside from the top are well worth it.
Our tour guide was very informative and provided a pleasant tour of the caverns. He was super nice and chatted with us about other stuff we could do locally after the tour was over. The tour itself isn’t too arduous, again, take your time going up and down the stairs and be careful because it can get slippery. The caverns here are quite unique and they do a great job highlighting the tour’s main sights (the fossils, blue john, stalagmites, and stalactites). I guess my only complaint is that the tour seemed a bit short. I would’ve preferred to explore more of the cavern but the tour is around 40 minutes long which is actually a good amount of time.

We decided to visit this cave as we heard it was the prettiest one of all the caves. We were not disappointed.
It is about a 15min walk from town centre to caves, there is also a car park about 5mins from caves. There is a short but steep walk to the entrance. It was £8.50 entrance which is cheapest cave as far as I know.
The cave tour took about 40mins. It is gorgeous in the cave. Lots of stalactites and stalagmites, with the blue john stone in show as well.
There are some steep steps in the cave which people with walking difficulties might struggle with.
The tour guide was knowledgable and engaging.
I actually think that I would have preferred to visit the Original Blue John cave as the caves seem bigger with more to see.

Well worth a visit. We only had time to visit one set of caves on our visit so looked at all the different ones in Castleton and chose Treak Cliff Cavern — very glad we did!
Tours seem to leave every half hour or so with no booking needed (we went in October) and the price was competitive, being about half of what some of the other caves charge.
Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a good tour, just the right length, happy for us to take photos and didn’t rush us. The tour takes you up inside the hillface, through caverns mined out for Blue John stone and then into natural caverns before coming out onto the hillside via an old mine shaft.
Great view from the top too, and there’s a gift and coffee shop as well. Really enjoyed it.