Discover The Coast... In January

It’s a new year and here is a new challenge… time to get out and about, says Janet Deacon

- Janet Deacon

THE Yorkshire Tour de Phantome is a chance to travel around the Yorkshire coast and North York Moors and explore the region’s folklore, myths and legends at the same time. The tour is made up of five different stages and involves a vast network of paths, bridleways and tracks. Tackle just one or all five stages. Take them at your own pace by bike, on foot, or on horseback.

For example the Pedaling Phantoms stage is a cycling rollercoaster from Whitby, one of the UK’s holiest and un-holiest towns. It’s heritage ranges from the glorious Whitby Abbey at the top of the 199 steps to its association with that paragon of evil, Count Dracula; via Robin Hood’s Bay with its tales of smuggling derring-do; to the Victorian ‘ghost town’ that is Ravenscar. Intrepid cyclists with a bit more energy might want to carry on a little further and end their ride at Scarborough Castle, reputedly haunted by its 14th century governor, Piers Gaveston.