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Cave or grotto

Speedwell Cavern

Castleton, Derbyshire

An underground boat trip through a miners' tunnel to a 'bottomless pit'.

In the 1770s lead miners dug a flooded tunnel into Winnats Pass, moving through it by boat. They found little lead but broke into a vast natural cavern with a deep lake, the 'Bottomless Pit', into which they dumped their waste rock without it ever seeming to fill.

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When
Dug 1770s
Where
53.3430, -1.7910
Group
Caves & grottoes

Visiting

Boat tours run daily from the bottom of Winnats Pass.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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