table for 30, no clouds please!...

If you like a walk and love your food and have Wednesday the 14th of May free, then sign up for a meal at what will be, albeit temporarily, the highest restaurant in the Lake District or for that matter the UK. Yes, if you fancy having a truly local meal atop Skiddaw at over 3000 feet, then be quick, the 30 places will be snapped up.

It promises to be a riot. Well, that is if history repeats itself. William Wordsworth dined there along with a group of friends. Strictly speaking they had a bonfire and a booze-up on the summit in honour of the Battle of Waterloo.

"We roasted beef and boiled plum-puddings there ; sung ' God save the king' round the most furious body of flaming tar-barrels that I ever saw ; drank a huge wooden bowl of punch ; fired cannon at every health with three times three, and rolled large blazing balls of tow and turpentine down the steep side of the mountain. The effect was grand beyond imagination. One fellow was so drunk that his companions placed him upon a horse, with his face to the tail, to bring him down, themselves being just sober enough to guide and hold him on. Down, however, we all got safely by midnight ; and nobody, from the old lord of seventy-seven to my son Herbert, is the worse for the toil of the day, though we were eight hours from the time we set out till we reached home."

Maybe this time it will be different. The diners will be led up the mountain by local guide Tim Mosedale who has also climbed Mount Everest. As far as I know there will be no horses. The food will be prepared and cooked by Keswick chef Peter Sidwell who is going to create a veritable feast out of local ingredients. And it's all part of the fun during Keswick's Mountain festival in May.

To book, call Peter at his Good Taste café in Keswick on 017687 75973.

Content and photography supplied by www.Artisan-Food.com, funded by Distinctly Cumbrian.