Two teams, two days, public transport, active travel and a journey across North Yorkshire meeting the people putting climate action into practice. Race Across Yorkshire has brought the Village Green partnership to life in a very different way.

Starting on Scarborough seafront, the two teams set off with one simple rule: travel across North Yorkshire without relying on a private car, stopping along the way to meet Village Green partners and complete a series of challenges.

The event was designed to be fun and competitive, but the real purpose was bigger than the race itself: to raise the profile of Village Green, showcase the work of its partners and explore what lower-carbon travel across a large rural county can actually look like.

Day one: from the coast to communities across North Yorkshire

Neither team knew their route until they opened their first envelopes on Scarborough beach.

One team headed first for Helmsley, while the other set off towards Selby, beginning two different journeys that would take in a wide range of Village Green partners and projects.

At Helmsley Walled Garden, the team met Howardian Hills National Landscape and had their first opportunity to get involved in practical activity and learn more about the work taking place locally.

Meanwhile, the second team travelled to Selby to meet Yorkshire Energy Doctor, where energy use and practical ways of helping households formed part of their first challenge.

From there, the journeys continued.

At North Yorkshire Sport in Harrogate, the team took part in a session exploring inclusive sport, including a game of boccia.

Another stop took the race to Rural Arts in Thirsk, where fabric dyeing provided a very different kind of challenge before the team hurried back towards the bus stop for the next leg of their journey.

The teams eventually converged on Carlton Lodge Activity Centre, where they met North Yorkshire Youth and the final challenges of the day brought together climate action, teamwork and some healthy competition.

There were also plenty of reminders that sustainable travel does not always go exactly to plan.

Cancelled buses, tractors, tight connections and hurried walks between stops all became part of the adventure. One team found themselves dealing with a cancelled bus in Easingwold, while both groups had to rely on timetables, local knowledge and a fair amount of improvisation to keep moving.

By the end of Day 1, both teams had travelled a significant distance, met several Village Green partners and completed the first half of the challenge, with only minutes separating them.

More than a race

Race Across Yorkshire was never really about who could get from A to B fastest.

The journey was created as a way of telling the wider Village Green story.

At each stop, the teams met people working on different aspects of climate action, from energy and sustainable travel to inclusive sport, creative activity, youth work and environmental projects.

It also gave the teams a chance to experience the realities of travelling across rural North Yorkshire without a car.

Sometimes that meant a straightforward bus or train journey. Sometimes it meant delays, missed connections or working out an alternative route.

That unpredictability was part of the point.

For communities across North Yorkshire, access to public transport and active travel can vary enormously, and Race Across Yorkshire offered a light-hearted way to explore both the possibilities and the challenges.

And then came Day 2…

Day 2 took the teams even further across North Yorkshire, with new partners, new challenges and some rather less conventional ways of travelling.

There were train journeys, a visit to North Yorkshire Together, more Village Green challenges, problems finding transport without a phone signal and one leg of the journey that definitely wasn’t completed by bus or train.

The final stages also took the teams into some of Yorkshire’s most spectacular landscapes, where they met Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust before the last part of the journey towards the finish.

And by the time both teams were heading towards the final destination, the challenge had become very close indeed.

We won’t spoil the ending here.

The full Day 2 highlights are coming soon.

Celebrating the Village Green partnership

Village Green is a three-year programme putting communities at the heart of climate action in North Yorkshire.

It is led by Community First Yorkshire and delivered in partnership with organisations across the county, helping communities take meaningful climate action by making it practical, achievable and part of everyday life.

Village Green works with:

• Howardian Hills National Landscape
• North Yorkshire Sport
• North Yorkshire Together
• North Yorkshire Youth
• Rural Arts
• Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust
• Yorkshire Energy Doctor

Race Across Yorkshire gave the teams the chance to see that work first-hand, while sharing those stories with a much wider audience.

And while there may ultimately have been a winning team, the biggest success was showing just how much is already happening across North Yorkshire.

Watch the Day 1 highlights and keep an eye out for the Day 2 film to find out how Race Across Yorkshire ended.

Find out more about Village Green.