The Treehouse

The Treehouse is a Michelin Star restaurant, run by successful restauranteur Godric Ramsgate, and featuring the cuisine of chef, Byron Skull. The food is an unconventional mix of modern French, American Cajun and various South American cuisines, which stems from Skull's extensive background, cooking in Paris, Louisiana, Brazil and Argentina.

Despite the name, the restaurant is not actually a tree house. It is situated atop an 18 metre high platform nestled between neighbouring trees. The platform itself was built in 1988 and is an extension of Dunorlan Mechanical Skyway station. It is constructed of carbon steel in the same Victorian style as the station. The platform was originally built to fill the space left when several large trees near Dunorlan station were felled during the 1987 hurricane. As a charitable gesture to the town, the Steam Guild offered to extend Dunorlan station to include a cafe and pub. However, once the platform itself was completed, funding was pulled, for reasons no one remembers, and the cafe/pub was never built.

Between 1988 and 1995, augmented by benches provided by the council, the platform served mainly as a hangout for teenagers and drug dealers, until Ramsgate was granted permission to build a restaurant on the site. The Treehouse opened in December 1996 and has been one of the town's most popular and loved dining venues ever since. The restaurant earned it's first Michelin Star in 1998 and the second in 2001.

The decor of the treehouse is more akin to a greenhouse than a traditional dining establishment, involving lavish plants and vines adorning the walls and ceiling. The walls themselves are largely glass on three sides, affording spectacular views of Dunorlan Park, Plembury Gap and the Skyway station.

The Treehouse is consistently booked at least two months in advance, so take this into consideration when planning a visit!