North York Moors trail: Yorkshire national park celebrates 25 years of GPS trails with new arts trail that takes passengers on tour of coastal village of Staithes

Families can enjoy a new treasure hunt trail that will celebrate the rich art heritage of the coastal village of Staithes.

The trail has been created by the North York Moors National Park and will coincide with how geocaching has become an international phenomenon since it first started in the year 2000 when treasure hunt enthusiasts began using the internet and GPS coordinates to find hidden caches.

In the national park, there are now hundreds of these digital treasure hunt trails, including this one in Staithes, where people can use the geocache app to navigate to each point before solving clues to discover the location of the caches. These can be small boxes or canisters which are discreetly hidden from view, and contain a logbook and a stamp for proving that someone has discovered them.

The clues for the Staithes geocache arts trail bring to life the artistic heritage, including links with one of the most influential female impressionist painters in the 20th century, Dame Laura Knight, who joined an artists’ colony in the village. This trail can also be followed without the app by picking up a booklet from Staithes Museum.

Many of the caches are hidden close to the 3D wall murals that make up part of the existing Staithes Illusion Trail, created by famous trompe l’oeil artist and resident Paul Czainski.

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Another geocache trail has also been updated this spring in Sandsend after it was initially introduced in 2018, with five lino cut illustrations created by local artists used to create the stamps at each of the caches.

Community engagement officer for the North York Moors National Park, Georgia Tiffany, said: “People love a treasure hunt and geocaching is a fantastic way of engaging people, particularly youngsters, in a fun way that guides them round the National Park and helps them learn more about its heritage, as well as wildlife and the natural world around them.

“It also helps them learn important skills for venturing out into the countryside, particularly using coordinates and map reading to navigate to a certain point.

“Geocaches have become so popular that we also hold geocaching events, the modern equivalent of orienteering, where people can pick up one of our handheld GPS units if they don’t have the app on their phone, and step out on a sociable treasure hunt adventure.”