The National Stone Centre is a place crammed with ancient tropical reefs, rocks and minerals, centuries of industrial history, and is full of wildlife treasures - a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is set in the heart of the Derbyshire Dales, on the edge of the Peak National Park.

The National Stone Centre's aim is to tell the 'Story of Stone' in the UK - its geological origins, the history of its working from earliest times, its multiplicity of uses, environmental issues and its contribution to landscape and art.

The National Stone Centre site contains six former quarries, four lime kilns and over one hundred and twenty disused lead mine shafts. The National Stone Centre site covers 50 acres (20 Ha), about half of which is designated nationally as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geological features.

Almost all the site is of limestone deposited in Carboniferous times 330 million years ago. At the bottom (southern edge), the limestone is overlain by younger shales and mudstones (and thin glacial deposits) which also form the rising ground, below the Millstone Grit crags.