So our target for the afternoon was Middleton Mine, the only underground Limestone mine in the UK. Middleton is split over three levels and stretches for more than 22 miles under the hills. The mine closed in 2001 and it has been estimated that during its operational time roughly 16 million tonnes of limestone had been removed.

It took us hours to even narrow down the location of the mine, driving back and forth along the same roads, and worryingly past the same truck who seemed to patrol the roads around the site. Security maybe?. On the fourth time passing the same truck they hit the breaks and sat there in the middle of the road before turning towards us, crap. We drove on and pulled into a layby next to the mine, pretending to look at a map. Sure enough the truck pulled along side us and knocked on our windows.

'Ey op fellas ya lost, or sommin?'

In my most unconvincing voice i explained how we were looking for a reservoir which is supposed to be near a town called Hopton. Well that was a mistake right there as when we first passed the truck we were in Hopton with the reservoir clearly visible, and boy did they point this out. They knew we were up to something, but they just didn't know what.

'So ya got a map then?, ill mark it on for you'

Second mistake. We did indeed have a map it was plastered with information and directions to other sites with a big red circle over the main entrance to the mine.

'No mate we left it in the service station'

Upon hearing this they began to explain how to get to the reservoir and even offered to escort us half the way. Crap crap crap!. We were now stuffed. We had finally found the mine, but as we were already acting suspicious if we left the car to go exploring and they drove back, problems would ensue. We had no other choice but to park in the town two miles away and hike over to the mine. And guess what, it started raining again hurray!.

Long story short, we got chased by cows, soaked by the rain, fell down bushy hills, hid from dogs and were baa'd at by angry sheep, but we had finally arrived. So the mine, what can you say about it, its huge!. In fact that makes it sound smaller than it actually is. How about ridiculous, ludicrous, monstrous or gob smacking. The mine is so big that photography is a massive pain in the ass, so much so that i only ended up taking one picture. Instead we decided to kick back, have a chilled out wander, oh and have a BBQ. Crunchy.

Continue further north