Enjoy a meal within the trees at Alnwick Tree House

Don’t be surprised if the diners next to you at the Alnwick Tree House are messy eaters. Up here, in the treetops, they’re as likely to be birds as people. But then, this place doesn’t exactly play by the usual restaurant rules; you enter this wooden turreted eatery via a wobbly, candle-lit suspension bridge (sensible shoes are an idea), to see trees actually growing out of the dining room floor.

Once inside, nature really is all around you with creepers clinging onto the walls and wood just about everywhere you look – including on the tables – which are formed from tree slices. The focus on what’s natural continues with the menu, which features local sea crab, organic sausages from nearby Northumberland farmlands and whole roasted wood pigeon (although it feels a bit wrong to order the latter).

For a proper party in the treetops, come on a live music night, when Andrew and Margaret Watchorn perform their selection of traditional Northumbrian tunes, complete with backing vocals from the birds outside.