About us

Blue John Distillery is a family business and came into being from experience steeped in years of local craft brewing (for ourselves) and gin distilling (for other people). Located in the Dark Peak, the higher and wilder part of the Peak District, we are inspired by the outstanding natural beauty and rich heritage of where we live and a desire to celebrate a unique part of the world. Our gin is lovingly hand made in small batches using locally foraged alongside classic botanicals. 

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Blue John (also known as Derbyshire Spar) is a semi-precious mineral, a form of fluorite, with bands of blue, purple, white and yellow colours. It is Britain's rarest mineral, first discovered at Castleton by the Romans almost 2000 years ago. During the 19th century, it was mined for its value as a beautiful and rare stone, with mining continuing on a small, carefully managed, scale today.

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There are many views as to how Blue John came to be so named:

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• that it comes from the French bleu-jaune, meaning 'blue-yellow' when exported to France and used by ormolu workers during the reign of Louis XVI (1774–91).

• that it comes from an old miners' name for the zinc ore sphalerite, which they called Black Jack and that this was adapted to become Blue John.

• that Cornish miners (who worked the Derbyshire lead mines in the 1740s), called it bleujenn, in Old Cornish blodon, a flower, bloom or blossom.

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Blue John is only found under the triangular hill known as Treak Cliff, just outside the town of Castleton in the Peak District of Derbyshire, UK, making it very rare indeed. Today the veins are mined only in Blue John Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern.