1. The History
Eldon Hill quarry is in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire, England, 4km south-west of Castleton. It is a 470-metre limestone hill of pure limestone resulting from squeezing and upfolding of geological forces to form a dome. On the northern limit of the carboniferous limestone in the Peak District and the name was first recorded in 1285 as “Elveden”, meaning 'Elves' hill'.
Quarrying permission was granted in 1950 and huge quantities of limestone were excavated, mostly for road-building purposes. Hence a big chunk of the north and north-west slopes of the hill have been gorged out. In 1995 RMC Aggregates applied to extend the quarry eastwards but this was denied as part of the tightening up on environmental problems caused by old mineral permissions granted between 1948 and 1981. Hence as a result of this the quarry closed in 1999.
Since then, there have been some attempts at natural restoration with several aquatic pools being established in the former workings and cavers can now explore some of the narrow caves exposed by the work, including Sidetrack Cave which was discovered in 2002.
More recently the quarry was used for a shoot for the fourth-coming War of the Worlds remake.
Eldon Quarry circa 1969:
2. The Explore
Don’t normally do revisits to quarries as once you’ve seen an old, abandoned quarry once, nothing much changes. Previous report HERE. However, when we visited last August, we could not get down onto the quarry floor due to the aforementioned film shoot going on. Hence, there was an incentive to go back to this hulking place. So, on a bracing April afternoon we had another look. It was already a bit of snow on the ground which made the place really atmospheric but while we were there, we were subject to blizzard-like conditions, marking the place feel like the base camp at Everest rather than a disused quarry in Derbyshire. Hence the very different climatic conditions and a totally different viewing point made this revisit well worth the while.
3. The Pictures
Here comes the blizzard!
Eldon Hill quarry is in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire, England, 4km south-west of Castleton. It is a 470-metre limestone hill of pure limestone resulting from squeezing and upfolding of geological forces to form a dome. On the northern limit of the carboniferous limestone in the Peak District and the name was first recorded in 1285 as “Elveden”, meaning 'Elves' hill'.
Quarrying permission was granted in 1950 and huge quantities of limestone were excavated, mostly for road-building purposes. Hence a big chunk of the north and north-west slopes of the hill have been gorged out. In 1995 RMC Aggregates applied to extend the quarry eastwards but this was denied as part of the tightening up on environmental problems caused by old mineral permissions granted between 1948 and 1981. Hence as a result of this the quarry closed in 1999.
Since then, there have been some attempts at natural restoration with several aquatic pools being established in the former workings and cavers can now explore some of the narrow caves exposed by the work, including Sidetrack Cave which was discovered in 2002.
More recently the quarry was used for a shoot for the fourth-coming War of the Worlds remake.
Eldon Quarry circa 1969:
2. The Explore
Don’t normally do revisits to quarries as once you’ve seen an old, abandoned quarry once, nothing much changes. Previous report HERE. However, when we visited last August, we could not get down onto the quarry floor due to the aforementioned film shoot going on. Hence, there was an incentive to go back to this hulking place. So, on a bracing April afternoon we had another look. It was already a bit of snow on the ground which made the place really atmospheric but while we were there, we were subject to blizzard-like conditions, marking the place feel like the base camp at Everest rather than a disused quarry in Derbyshire. Hence the very different climatic conditions and a totally different viewing point made this revisit well worth the while.
3. The Pictures
Here comes the blizzard!
