MICHAEL Owen's feet didn't touch the ground after he bought a romantic stay in a treehouse as a Christmas present for his wife.

Some might think England and Newcastle United striker Owen is out of his tree for buying the unusual gift but John Sykes, owner of Frogg Manor, at Broxton, says the room appeals because of its sense of 'romance and magic'.

Hopefully Owen's serious knee injury will be on the mend by the time he and wife Louise climb up the stairs to the room, which is 15 feet in the air and includes a kingsize bed, shower and toilet as well as a balcony over-looking the Welsh hills.

There are already 20 advance bookings for the bespoke £100,000 tree-house, which will be completed in the spring, and is said to be ideal for those wishing to keep a low profile because it has its own car port and is away from the main building within 12 acres of gardens.

A stay in the treehouse will cost £250 per night although it is understood Owen, who lives at Lower Soughton Hall, Northop, intends to book out the entire hotel to ensure complete privacy over a weekend which could cost him thousands.

An insider said: 'It is one of his main Christmas presents for Louise, an exclusive weekend. He is paying for all the rooms in the hotel, but they won't be used. He wants to be the first person to stay in it.

'They were there about two weeks ago and talking about it. He's organising it. She knows it's happening.'

The treehouse, within a copper beech, will be decorated with a Camelot theme and named Lady Guinevere after the wife of King Arthur.

The hotel will be asking treehouse guests for their shoe size in order to provide boots and woolly socks so they can get across the gardens without getting dirty or cold.

Hotel owner John Sykes said: 'It is totally exclusive for those who want to swing in a tree and be incognito. I think we will be first hotel to have a letting room in a tree in the north of England if not the country.'

Mr Sykes, 71, who had the idea of the treehouse, is happy to be known as something of a character.

Originally an electrical engineer, he said: 'If you come from the working

class you are mad and if you come from the aristocracy you are eccentric, so I have no objection to that description!'

Asked if Michael Owen had booked the treehouse, he said: 'I cannot comment, I'm a hotelier, but he has been here in the past and he has a particular liking of our cheesecake.'

Owen is currently having racing stables built at nearby Hampton.