If you like walks, trains or horses then North Yorkshire is the place to be.

MORE Review: Up 'n' Under Culture index NY Artists Quarter What's on at the theatre? Mashamshire Arts Festival Meet the Dales Greedy Pig - pub reviews Watch chocolate made in Leyburn Royal Ascot 2005 in York LINKS Walks in North Yorkshire Dalby Forest and the Bridestones RHS Harlow Carr Gardens Valley Gardens, Harrogate Wharram Percy The Yorkshire Dales North York Moors Railway The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites

From the North York Moors to the Yorkshire Dales, there's loads of stuff to outdoor round here.

Climb Whitby's 199 steps, counting them all the way just to make sure there are 199. At the top of the 199 steps, gaze out to sea Captain Cook style

Take a tour of the Royal Horticultural Society's Harlow Carr Gardens, the newest and most northerly of the four RHS gardens. Particularly worth a look is the Gardens Through Time, seven historical gardens providing a living encyclopaedia of 200 years of gardening history

Continuing the garden theme, take a stroll through the Valley Gardens, Harrogate's Grade II Listed gardens which cover 17 acres and contain a greater number of mineral springs than any other known place. Band concerts take place on Sunday afternoons throughout the summer

Walk to the end of Filey Brigg - without getting caught out by the tide...
Then take a look in the Filey Lifeboat Station near the amuseument arcades.
read Life on a Filey Coble - and then rescued by the Filey Lifeboat!

• The Bridestones

Visit Dalby Forest on the southern slopes of the North York Moors. Follow various paths to the Bridestones - peculiar and beautiful rock formations which were created from sandstone laid under the sea during the Jurassic period more

Park the car and walk to the deserted medieval village at Wharram Percy near Malton

Walk along the clifftop from Robin Hoods Bay to Ravenscar on the Cleveland Way, looking out for smugglers caves in the cliff sides. Occasional drops at Boggle Hole and Stoupe Beck take you down to sea level, so stop off for a paddle

There are loads of beautiful walks around the North York Moors, from Rosebery Topping to the Hole of Horcum near Pickering to Blakey Topping near Crosscliff

Have a bracing walk around the Yorkshire Dales - Malham Tarn is particularly dramatic, as is How Stean Gorge at Nidderdale. There are some beautiful walks around Aysgarth Falls on the River Ure. Camp in a field, have lunch at a pub, and take some stunning photos more

• A horse trains on the Gallops at Middleham in Wensleydale

North Yorkshire is famed for its horseracing. There are racetracks at Ripon and Thirsk, and Royal Ascot comes to York Racecourse in June 2005
Training racehorses in Middleham

Trains: there's everything for the train-lover in North Yorkshire... more

Take a trip to the moors near Pateley Bridge, Harrogate. Explore Stump Cross Caverns and the curious rock formations at Brimham in Nidderdale which provide a great variety of weird and wonderful shapes, from elephants to mushrooms!

The Yorkshire Dales

The Yorkshire Dales contain some of the most dramatic exposed limestone cliffs, gorges and a fretwork of limestone pavements in the UK. Take a bracing walk to the top of Malham Tarn in the Craven area The hills are riddled with limestone caves dating back to the Ice Age.

More info: The Yorkshire Dales How Stean Gorge Malham Tarn and Cove The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites

Meet the Dales

Trains trains trains!

the National Railway Museum in York is a great starting point for train lovers and children alike. The Flying Scotsman lives here, and she travels between York and Scarborough throughout the summer. a miniature steam railway travels round Scarborough's North Bay from Kinderland to the Sea Life Centre the North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs steam trains along an 18 mile line between Pickering and Grosmont, through the heart of the North York Moors National Park. The NYMR was the backdrop for the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films the Wensleydale line runs between Leeming Bar and Leyburn Embsay station at Skipton was built in 1888 and a steam railway now runs through the Yorkshire Dales between Embsay and Bolton Abbey. Stop off at Bolton Abbey for a walk to the 12th century ruins of the Priory, and have a picnic in the woods or by the River Wharfe.

More info: The Yorkshire Dales How Stean Gorge Malham Tarn and Cove The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites

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