Best British ice-cream

Ahead of another hot weekend, our writers choose their favourite places to buy ice cream around Britain.

Yorkshire

Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream is a family farm-meets-adventure playground that serves Yorkshire’s most spectacular homemade ice cream to waves of devotees. At its heart is Billy-Bob’s Parlour: imagine a Fifties diner transplanted from the American Midwest to The Dales, replete with period signs, music, leather booths and even an aluminum Airstream serving coffees in the corner.

Billy-Bob’s is a cathedral to the craft serving everything from cones and coke floats to the best chocolate milkshake you’ll ever taste. As well as the freezers full of standards, a changing list of adventurous flavours always demands a double scoop: liquorice and blackcurrant, Yorkshire rhubard, bubble gum, ginger crunch.

Try them dipped in nuts or over waffles, all the while soaking up the most arrestingly beautiful scenery close to the famous Bolton Abbey. Best of all is that you can sneak in for seconds; the children will be far too busy in the straw-floored barns or playground rides. 

Calm Slate Farm, Halton East, Skipton
yorkshiredalesicecream.co.uk

The produce at G&T’s Ice Cream Parlour has so many fans, there is even a variety especially for dogs. For something a little stronger there’s a Gin and Tonic sorbet and, in season, Christmas Pudding and Mince Pie flavours. It’s found close to Fountains Abbey and Brimham Rocks and visitors can watch the ice cream being made while they wait.

Home Farm, Risplith, Ripon
www.risplithicecream.co.uk

One of the highlights in the pretty village of Thornton-le-Dale, close to the North Yorkshire Moors and half an hour from Scarborough on the A170, is Balderson's ice-cream parlour, where flavours include rum and raisin, apple crumble and Turkish delight. Scoops are generous and my favourites, whether squashed onto a cone or crammed into a cardboard cup, are cappuccino and coconut. 

Brighton

The queues snaking out of Marrocco's in Hove tell you one thing: the home-made gelato is good. Fans of Italian ice cream have been known to wait 30 minutes or more for a scoop of melon, tiramisu or plain old vanilla (there are 24 flavours to choose from). Keep walking past Hove's famous beach huts and look for the line.

8 King's Esplanade, Hove
www.marroccos.co.uk

Cute Boho Gelato, close to the seafront, has fantastical options ramging from granny’s favourite, Battenburg, to mojito and apple. It also has a strong ethical stance and works with Fareshare, a food waste redistribution charity. Fareshare gives them surplus goods from their warehouse like tea, biscuits, maple syrup and juice, which Boho Gelato then uses in its ice cream. They also use ingredients from local restaurants to create local signature flavours. A stroll along the beach after a visit is a must. 

Devon

You’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for Otter Valley Dairy – it’s more of a roadside pit stop than an ice-cream parlour. Tucked into the slope of a lovely Devon valley, four generations of one farming family serve up some of the best ice cream I’ve tried outside Italy. The summerhouse, where you make your purchases, overlooks Otter Valley outside the village of Monkton on the A303.

Picnic tables are set out so you can watch the wandering cows that helped contribute to your ample scoop of creamy goodness. The flavours are imaginative but luscious – from strawberry and balsamic vinegar to lemon curd or ginger and butternut squash. Weekly specials, sorbets and frozen yogurts are available, too. 

Cotswolds

Winstones, on lovely Rodborough Common, above Stroud, has been making ice cream since 1925. It is still family owned, and as well as its shop/parlour has a fleet of retro vans. Really piquant flavours include spiced plum and blackcurrant.

Northern Ireland

On the Promenade at Portstewart, on the Causeway Coast, you’ll find Morelli’s, which, with 99s and knickerbocker glories, has been helping visitors cool off since 1911. 

Cornwall

It's hard to ignore the call of the salted caramel ice cream at Roskilly's organic farm near St Keverne. Children can watch the Jersey cows being milked at 4.30pm daily.