Speedwell Cavern

The Speedwell Cavern is one of the four show caves in Castleton, Derbyshire, England.

It consists of a horizontal lead miners' adit (a level passageway driven horizontally into the hillside) leading to the cavern itself - a limestone cave. The lower part of the adit and the floor of the cavern are permanently flooded, resulting in Speedwell Cavern's (locally unique) feature : the visitor makes the journey into the cave by boat (originally legged through by the guide, but now powered by an electric motor).

At the end of the adit, the visitor alights from the boat and walks into the cave to see the fluorspar veins, the stalactites and stalagmites, and the so-called 'Bottomless Pit'. The latter is an extremely deep vertical shaft, now choked to within 20m of the surface by rock spoil dumped by miners. The original depth of the shaft has been estimated, from the amount of spoil placed in the shaft over the years, at around 150m.

A connection was discovered in 1999 between the Speedwell Cavern System and Titan, the largest natural shaft in the UK, which is 141.5 metres (464 feet) high.

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Brighty
2 June 2017
Book via their annoying website to get an early bird saving
Nicky Nightingale
29 April 2011
Caution for the claustrophobic- the majority of the tour is a boat ride through a very small dark tunnel!
Katy Grenville
1 October 2012
106 Steps down then back up, not for the very tall or claustrophobic!
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Ben Mills and 11,239 more people have been here
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Arthurs Way, Peak District National Park, Hope Valley, Derbyshire S33, UK Get directions
Wed 9:00 AM–2:00 PM
Thu 10:00 AM–5:00 PM
Fri 11:00 AM–5:00 PM
Sat 10:00 AM–5:00 PM
Sun 10:00 AM–8:00 PM
Mon 10:00 AM–4:00 PM

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