Turner Trails Geocaching

Geocaching - follow our high-tech Turner Treasure Trail

If racing (or just walking) across the countryside, using your GPS to find hidden treasures is your thing, you'll love geocaching, this exciting family friendly activity.

We've hidden four geocaches in secret locations in and around Malham in the Yorkshire Dales to celebrate the Yorkshire works of JMW Turner.

JMW Turner (1775-1851) was one of Britain's greatest landscape painters, watercolourists and printmakers. Renowned as 'the painter of light', Turner first visited Yorkshire in 1797 and returned here throughout his life, inspired by the spirituality he found in its glorious landscapes. He visited more than 70 places, including Malham and the surrounding area.

Turner's paintings and sketches around Malham are interpreted through our four geocaches hidden near his actual viewpoints.

To look for them you need to sign up to geocaching.com which is free, and have a handheld GPS receiver. Once you've signed in to geocaching.com, search for the four caches' GC codes which are: GC2V5HN, GC2V5HT, GC2V5H6 and GC2V5GE.

Alternatively you can search for Malham and find the Turner caches by name in the list.
These are:

• Turner's Gordale Scar
• Turner's Janet Foss
• Turner's Malham Cove
• Turner's Malham Tarn

It's geocaching etiquette to replace any item you take out of the cache with something of the same or more value. You'll also find a logbook to record that you've found the cache, where you come from and how you found it - and don't forget to leave the geocachers greeting TFTC (thanks for the cache)!
Once you try it, you may become hooked to this global craze. So why not give it a try and discover glorious Yorkshire!  

Good luck!  Will you be the FTF (first to find) the Turner's Malham Cove cache?

Find out more about geocaching and other caches in Yorkshire here and the Turner Trails.

Chelsea Flower Show

Planting a Yorkshire winner 

Following last year's success at the Chelsea Flower Show, where the Welcome to Yorkshire 'Rhubarb Crumble and Custard Garden' won a Silver Medal and the prestigious People's Choice Award, this year Welcome to Yorkshire are very excited to once again showcase Yorkshire with a new and exciting design for 2011.

'The Art of Yorkshire' designed by Gillespies LLP, is a garden that celebrates Yorkshire's art and landscape through the eyes of an artist, taking inspiration from the great Yorkshire artists Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Andy Goldsworthy and Joseph Turner.

At its heart, the garden features a major piece of sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, framed by a quirky iPad-inspired easel. Paving and planting represent traditional field patterns in the foreground, rolling moors in the midground, and to the rear the undulating rocky hills of Yorkshire.

So don't forget to vote for the Welcome to Yorkshire garden again for the People's Choice Award and celebrate Yorkshire and all it has to offer! Voting opens on this month via the RHS website click here for further details.

The garden will be on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 24th - 28th May.

Visit our Yorkshire Gardens microsite for more information on Yorkshire's glorious gardens.

Gannet and Puffin cruises with RSPB

Gannet and Puffin cruises with RSPB

Seabird cruises set sail once more, head out to sea with the RSPB

The hugely popular RSPB gannet and puffin cruises, which each year show thousands of people the amazing seabirds off the Yorkshire coast, are due to set sail again this month. Step aboard the MV Yorkshire Belle and sail out of Bridlington Harbour, heading for a breath-taking wildlife spectacle.

The three-hour cruises sail across Bridlington Bay, around Flamborough Head and up to the amazing Bempton Cliffs, home of the RSPB nature reserve which in spring and summer is alive with almost 1/4million seabirds.

Kim Smales the RSPB's cruise co-ordinator, comments 'The sight of majestic gannets, with their distinctive yellow heads and six-foot wingspan, is something that lives in the memory for a very long time. And that's not to mention the cute puffins bobbing along in the water alongside the boat, or the deafening noise of the kittiwakes filling the air with their noisy calls.'

Volunteers from the RSPB's East Yorkshire Local Group will be on board to help passengers identify the birds, answer questions and provide a fascinating commentary to the trip.

The cruises run most weekends from 7 May to 16 July, and tickets cost £18 for adults, £9 for children (under 14) or £45 for a family. There are also two cruises especially for families, which are slightly shorter at 2½ hours and will have children's activities on board.  These will sail on Sunday 29 May and Saturday 4 June and will cost £15 for an adult, £7.50 for a child or £37.50 for a family.

Make sure you take your camera to capture the breath taking coastline and its feathered inhabitants. 

Contact Kim Smales for further information or to book on 01262 850959, or click here for further details. 

For more ideas on what to see on Yorkshire's stunning coast click here.