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Over the summer holidays I am looking at taking my lad (7) for a day out around Castleton.
I am thinking of doing one of the many cavern tours(Speedwell / Blue John / Peak etc)followed by a walk up to Mam Tor and a picnic. I think he will love the caverns and I am after advise on which one to go for.
I know you can get joint tickets to Speedwell and Peak but I think one may be enough for him.
Any advise from people who have been to any of them will be much appreciated.
Cheers
Can't help on the Caverns but the landslipped road should be cool for him to see, read the notice board about multiple slips and road rebuilding. Makes geography and engineering seem a bit more real than just text books.
I've done Blue John; it's good. I can't compare it to the others.
Treak and Devils Arse are fun interesting walk/talk/tour guide affairs but Speedwell is done in a Gondola and there's an Ice Cream shop at the entrance/exit.
Toughie....
Devils Arse is pretty interesting......nice walk to it.....clamber under a low roof.......get to say arse a lot......
Speedwell is down, down, down.......whatever the temp outside....its cold and damp inside.....and a cool boat ride propelled by a blokes legs on the roof of the cave!
I used to work in Speedwell - it's a boat trip, so not down (though the steps down to it are I guess). More to see in Blue John I reckon.
So it is down then ffs.......and quite a long way too (with a 7 yr old)
If it was down and in a boat it would be waterfall.
Treak cavern is good - Blue John mine [below the one called Blue John cavern] on Mam Tor. Quite a bit to see.
Speedwell is hard to say whether it's worth it - it's a boat ride on a flooded horizontal mineshaft, which is unusual and exciting for the kids. But there's very little to see beyond that. We queued for a decent stretch for it [the boat means it's only a few in at a time] and felt it wasn't worth the wait, but if you could get in without a big queue then it prob would be.
It,s years since I did any of them but I recall enjoying Speedwell, though probably mostly for the amusing guide.
Since you fancy Mam Tor too I would suggest going down Blue John then come back up and continue straight up Mam Tor.
Cheers for all your help.
Looking like Blue John followed by broken road and Mam Tor.
If you want to give him a proper exciting pothole experience, then [url= http://www.cravenpotholeclub.org/gg_contentpage.aspx?Group=gapinggill&Page=gapinggill.visit ]this[/url]...
Might be a bit of a walk in for a 7-year old though, nearly three miles up to the entrance.
And if you do decide to do it, get there stupidly early; done it a couple of times with BPC in May and even arriving at 7am, still number 40 in the queue!
Not sure if things have changed but in my day Ivorlott's suggestion was a single seat descent which might not work for your lad? Good fun though!
Minimum age for the winch meet is 7, but I don't know if any of mine would get in the seat for that (and they're 13)!
If he's exceptionally plucky, and not especially tiny for his age, it might be for you.
There's always Ingleborough Cave on the walk-in if he bottles it though...
Cheers for that suggestion.
He's a tall lad for his age and certainly plucky, but looking at that single seat decent I think it's a touch too far.
Most definitely one to remember for a year or two's times though.
Looks great to me.