The Treehouse

Climbing the stairs into Alnwick Garden's Treehouse feels properly mad in the best way - you're ascending into a 15-metre tall wooden structure that looks like it shouldn't exist, let alone serve food. But here it stands, a full restaurant suspended above the garden with views that stretch across the Northumberland countryside toward the coast near Chathill.

The draw isn't just novelty. The building itself is extraordinary - designed by the same architects who created the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London, it's all swooping timber and cantilever engineering that somehow reads as organic rather than showy. Inside, you're eating among exposed beams with light flooding through the timber lattice work. The restaurant does proper cooking, not just tourist fodder, and the menu changes seasonally.

Really though, you're paying for the experience and the views as much as the meal. Kids will lose their minds getting up there, and the walk through the wider garden itself is worth allowing time for - it's more than just a backdrop to the main event. The Treehouse sits within Alnwick Garden as a whole, so you could easily spend a half day exploring both.

If you're camping nearby - and there's no shortage of sites within a few miles like Coast and Castles or Percy Wood - this makes a brilliant evening out that feels different from standard holiday fare. Worth booking ahead. Go on a clear day if you possibly can.