Caravans and motorhomes: the roads

Three different things, and why the difference matters

Every restriction on this page falls into one of three categories, and the wording of the rest of the page follows from them.

Prohibited by order. A Traffic Regulation Order made under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Contravening one is a criminal offence. It is signed with a circular regulatory sign: for caravans that is diagram 622.7, “Towed caravans prohibited”, in Schedule 3 Part 2 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016.

Advised against. No legal force at all. It is signed with a rectangular information sign: diagram 820, “Road unsuitable for caravans”.

A regulatory sign with no order behind it, which is not enforceable.

A circular sign and a rectangular sign look completely different and mean completely different things. I use the word banned only where both an order and a circular sign are established, which on this page is nowhere.

Sutton Bank: caravans are prohibited, with a caveat worth reading

Caravans are prohibited on Sutton Bank, the A170 climb onto the Hambleton escarpment. North Yorkshire Police, after stopping two outfits in June 2017, publicly referred to a traffic order prohibiting caravans on the A170 at Sutton Bank, supported by numerous signs showing this on the route to the bank. That is the strongest evidence available, and it is a police statement reported at second hand.

Here is the caveat. North Yorkshire Council's own Sutton Bank page does not mention caravans at all, not once. No Traffic Regulation Order could be located: the Council publishes no register of orders in force, and its traffic order page carries live consultations only. I also could not confirm whether the sign on the approach is the regulatory 622.7 or the advisory 820, and that distinction is what decides whether the restriction is enforceable. None of that makes it a good idea to tow up there. It does mean I will not tell you the scope of the restriction or what breaching it costs, because neither is published.

The 2017 seizure, correctly told. It is widely repeated that the two drivers were prosecuted for breaching the caravan prohibition. They were not. Both were reported for driving other than in accordance with their licences, a towing licence-category offence with nothing to do with Sutton Bank, and the caravans were seized as a consequence of that. Two independent reports confirm it.

The road itself, all from North Yorkshire Council. The A170 climbs 160 metres from the Vale of York to the top of the North York Moors in under one mile, with three sections of steep 1 in 4, or 25%, inclines. Just over halfway up is a left hand hairpin bend. On average, over 120 goods vehicles per year fail to make the ascent. The Council advises avoiding the bank if it is wet, icy or snowbound, if you are not familiar with Sutton Bank, if your vehicle has a low power to weight ratio, if you are driving a fully laden articulated goods vehicle, if there is little weight over the drive axle, if local signs indicate it is blocked, or if you are an inexperienced driver.

That advisory list is aimed at articulated lorries and low power to weight vehicles and makes no mention of motorhomes, so there is no published basis for saying motorhomes are restricted here. Equally, the scope of the caravan order is unpublished, so I cannot tell you where a horsebox, a plant trailer or a rigid motorhome stands. Treat the road as unsuitable whatever you are towing. There is no length restriction on Sutton Bank in any source I could find. For what is at the top once you have arrived by another road, see our Sutton Bank guide.

Rosedale Chimney Bank

No authority publishes a gradient for this road, so everything in this section is third-party. The approach sign is reported as reading “Rosedale Chimney Bank ½ mile ahead / Gradient 1 in 3 / Unsuitable for lorries & caravans / Coaches prohibited”. A second third-party source reports the road as unsuitable for lorries and caravans and unsuitable for all vehicles in winter conditions, and does not mention a coach prohibition. Two sources, one difference, and I would rather report both than pick one.

The gradient is consistently reported as a maximum of 1 in 3, about 33%, with an average of about 13%, climbing 568 feet over 0.81 miles. That single sign is a neat illustration of the three categories above: “Unsuitable for lorries & caravans” is advisory with no legal force, while “Coaches prohibited” may well be regulatory.

There is no length restriction on Rosedale Chimney Bank in any source: not North Yorkshire Council's traffic order or weight limit pages, not the National Park, not third-party road sources. If you have read one somewhere, a coach prohibition and a length prohibition are different signs. Our Chimney Bank page has the road in full.

The other moor roads

North Yorkshire Council publishes no public register or map of weight, height, width or length restrictions in force. So for every road below, no restriction found means no restriction published, which is not the same as no restriction existing.

The A169 over the moors. Blue Bank at Sleights is reported third-party at 1 in 5, or 20%, with an escape lane northbound and high-friction surfacing, and the moorland section is reported as problematic in winter for frost, fog and snow. No published weight, height, width or length restriction and no towing prohibition. Blue Bank at one in five is materially less steep than Sutton Bank at one in four, which is why the A169 is the usual alternative, though no official source recommends it as one, so take that as my observation rather than guidance from an authority.

Blakey Ridge. I found nothing at all, official or third-party. It is a high, exposed moorland road, and that is the whole of what I can tell you.

Carlton Bank, the B1257. No published restriction. It appears in the Council's gritting material, which makes it a gritting priority and not a restricted road.

White Horse Bank and Boltby Bank. No authority-published gradient and no published restriction for either. Both are described as very steep in cycling sources, which are not authorities on traffic restrictions, so I establish nothing beyond that.

Whitby, and the Park & Ride

The Park & Ride sits at the A171 and B1460 junction north of Whitby, postcode YO21 1TL, with 450 spaces. North Yorkshire Council gives the 2026 season as Sunday 29 March to Sunday 1 November 2026: from 29 March to 18 July, 8am to 6:30pm with buses every 15 minutes; from 19 July to 6 September, 8am to 8:30pm, every 10 minutes and every 30 minutes after 6pm; from 7 September to 1 November, 8am to 6:30pm, every 15 minutes. Those are published by North Yorkshire Council for the 2026 season and checked in September 2026, and they change annually, so confirm before you travel.

Motorhomes are permitted during operating hours. Caravans are not permitted, and overnight parking is prohibited. No height, length or size limit is stated, but since caravans are excluded a car and caravan outfit is effectively excluded too. For what the town itself is like, see Whitby.

Overnight motor caravan parking on the coast

This is now a permanent order, and it supersedes any general statement you may read about car park terms. An experimental order prohibiting overnight parking of motor caravans between 11pm and 7am, all year round, became enforceable from 13 September 2024. It covers the A174 from Sandsend to Raithwaite, three miles north of Whitby, Royal Albert Drive at Scarborough North Bay, and Osgodby Hill and Filey Road at Cayton Bay. Daytime parking between 7am and 11pm is unrestricted.

On 27 March 2026 North Yorkshire Council made the order permanent with effect from 8 April 2026, and began consulting on similar orders elsewhere in Scarborough to address displaced motor caravans. The order uses the EU definition of a motor caravan: living accommodation with seats and a table, convertible sleeping accommodation, cooking facilities and storage. I have described the areas rather than attempted a street list, because the precise streets sit in plan appendices I have not read.

Robin Hood's Bay, Staithes and the old villages

At Robin Hood's Bay the National Park asks: please do not drive down to the old village beyond the small roundabout by the Victoria Hotel, as there is no public parking and vehicle access is very difficult. Visitors are directed to the Bank Top and Station Road car parks, with the warning that it is a steep walk down and up but worth it. That is official advice, not a prohibition, and no weight or width limit is published.

At Staithes the National Park states that there is no access by car down into the old village, with the car parks at the top of the bank. It states that as a fact of access rather than as advice, though it is not the highway authority and I found no underlying order, so I repeat the statement with attribution and claim no penalty. One jurisdictional oddity worth a line: the Cowbar Lane approach on the north side of Staithes lies in Redcar and Cleveland rather than North Yorkshire, which is why North Yorkshire sources never mention it. If you are parking on that side, check locally.

What does work

Touring parks with hardstanding and hook-up, Caravan and Motorhome Club or Camping and Caravanning Club certificated locations, and pubs and farms that take a van by arrangement, ringing ahead rather than turning up. For the detail on all of those, and for where each part of the park suits which kind of outfit, see camping and caravanning, or Dalby Forest camping if the forest is your target. For everything else, where to stay compares the bases.

What we do not know yet

Six honest gaps, and I would rather name them than paper over them.

• The text, title or date of any order prohibiting caravans on Sutton Bank, and whether the sign there is regulatory or advisory.
• Whether the Sutton Bank restriction covers horseboxes, other trailers, HGVs or motorhomes.
• Any published penalty, anywhere on this page.
• An official gradient figure for Rosedale Chimney Bank.
• Any published restriction for Blakey Ridge, Carlton Bank, White Horse Bank or Boltby Bank.
• Whether the 2021 Whitby town-centre experimental order was made permanent, and whether its 10:30am to 4pm hours are current.

Underneath all of this sits one structural problem: North Yorkshire Council publishes no register of orders in force. A Freedom of Information request would be the way to settle the Sutton Bank question, and until somebody makes one, this is where the wall is. If you know better, our contact page is open and corrections are credited.

The same climbs in an older car

These same banks test an older car for quite different reasons, and that is covered properly on our classic car driving routes page, as the two-wheeled view is on our motorcycling guide.