Lights, phone, action as movie hotspots are put on the mobile map

Now tourism bosses hope even more visitors will be attracted to explore the likes of Castle Howard and York Minster in person by a new initiative to provide movie fans with a guide to favourite UK film locations on their mobile phones.

At the touch of a button, people will be able to find out all about Oakworth Station on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which featured in the 1979 classic, The Railway Children, or Castle Howard's role as Sebastian's ancestral home in the 2008 remake of Brideshead Revisited.

York Minster, used as Westminster Abbey in the 1997 film Elizabeth because of problems getting permission to use the real venue, is also featured and anyone who watched the 2006 hit Miss Potter, which tells the life of Beatrix Potter, and admired the Arten Gill viaduct in North Yorkshire will be urged to experience the Settle-Carlisle Railway for themselves to take in the breathtaking views of Dentdale.

The information is available for free to users of Apple iPhones through an application produced by national tourism agency VisitBritain. Users downloading the British Film Location application – known as an app – can read detailed information, see images of the most famous scenes shown on Google maps, and search by film title to find where scenes were shot and get directions to them.

Users ca also plan film tours using the app or seek specific locations.

Don Stewart from Welcome to Yorkshire, the region's tourism agency, said: "This is a terrific initiative. We're sure it will generate even more interest in Yorkshire's film locations and it's sure to have a positive effect on visitor numbers."

According to research by VisitBritain, 40 per cent of visitors considering coming to the UK would be likely to visit places they have seen on film.