Go on a tour of famous Yorkshire sites with just a click of the mouse

A collection of castles, country houses and landscapes from across the UK have been added to Google Street View, available through Google Maps.

Yorkshire's Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, near Ripon, and Malham Tarn Estate in the Dales are among 20 National Trust properties and landscapes which can be explored.

Try out the Malham Tarn walkthrough

Try out the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal walkthrough

This is the first time a large number of tourist attractions have been added to Street View UK in one go. The images give a 360 degree ground level tour of the outside of the National Trust sites.

Other locations include Lindisfarne Castle in Northumberland and Lyme Park in Cheshire.

The images were taken late last summer using the Google Trike – a three-wheeled bike with a street view camera mounted on it, collecting images in places not easily accessible by car.

It is estimated the cyclists covered 125 miles on the trike, moving at an average speed of two miles per hour.

Since then, the images have been processed and put together by Google to give a seamless 360 degree view of the various buildings, parts of their grounds and landscapes on routes designed in conjunction with the Trust.

Chris Fowler, general manager at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, said: "Google Street View will enable even more people to take a peek and get a sense of what Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal has to offer.

"It's fantastic to think that people from around the world, who might never be able to travel to the UK to see the place, will be able to enjoy a virtual visit."

Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist from Google, said: "Places like Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal and the wild and rugged Malham Tarn offer all of us a special glimpse of the history, nature and architecture up and down the country.

"We were delighted to be able to open up some of the UK's most famous landmarks to the rest of the world, via the web.

"It's a fun way to gen up on what to see and do on a day out or whet your appetite for where to go next."

The Google Trike will collect images at several other National Trust properties this year.

To take a virtual tour visit www.maps.google.co.uk/streetview and click on the National Trust logo near the bottom of the page.