The Best Ice Cream on the Llŷn Peninsula
I've thought about this more than is probably reasonable.
Ice cream is one of those things that seems simple right up until you start noticing the difference between a good one and a truly great one. The Llŷn Peninsula, it turns out, has several of the latter. And since we spend a lot of time here and have eaten our way around fairly thoroughly, I feel qualified to give you our honest guide.
Four places. All worth your time. One of them worth building an afternoon around.
Raspberry ripple and banoffee ice cream scoops from Two Islands Ice Cream.
Two Islands Ice Cream, Abersoch
This is the one I find myself thinking about on the drive down to the peninsula. Two Islands make small-batch ice cream using Welsh dairy, in flavours that are just a little more considered than you'd expect from a seaside scoop shop.
The key thing to know is that the flavours change daily (sometimes more often), depending on what's been churned that morning. Which means there's no guarantee you'll find the same thing twice, but it also means whatever's in the cabinet is fresh. My current favourite is the lemon and poppyseed, which manages to be sharp and creamy at the same time in a way that's rather addictive. The dark chocolate and sea salt is another one I'd go back for. The blackcurrant and clotted cream, if you're lucky enough to catch it, is sooo good!
Cariad Gelato, Abersoch
Before you come for me, ice cream lovers, yes I know gelato is technically different from ice cream… but we couldn’t miss Cariad off the list!
Cariad makes authentic Italian-style gelato, and the flavour list leans into the crowd-pleasers; chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, honeycomb, rum and raisin - with the occasional indulgence into the novelty (Biscoff, Kinder Bueno).
The two Abersoch ice cream spots are genuinely different enough that there's no real competition between them. It depends entirely on what you're in the mood for. Some days call for lemon and poppyseed. Some days call for strawberry gelato. Both are valid.
Glasu, Pwllheli
Glasu started, as the best things sometimes do; by accident. The family made ice cream for their daughter's wedding in 2012, it was a hit, and what began as a one-off became a business. They now run a café in the heart of Pwllheli, and all the ice cream is made using milk from their own dairy farm on the Llŷn Peninsula.
There's a richness and freshness to farm-made ice cream, and Glasu's is no exception. The flavour selection rotates and the café also does sundaes, banana splits, and waffles if you want to make a proper event of it.
Pwllheli isn't always on the tourist trail the way Abersoch is, but it's a fifteen-minute drive from Tawelfor and Glasu is worth seeking out - particularly if you're already heading that way for the market or the marina.
Strawberry ice cream with a flake on Criccieth beach, from Cadwaladers
Cadwaladers, Criccieth
Our ‘old but gold’ pick.
Cadwaladers has been in Criccieth since the 1920s, when Hannah Cadwalader started selling vanilla ice cream from the window of her family's general store. The recipe (famously described in the original handwritten copy as containing "6lbs of shan't tell you and a great deal of love and care") has been kept going ever since, even after the business changed hands in the 1980s.
It's a chain now, technically. There are branches in Cardiff, Porthmadog, and a few other places. But Criccieth is where it started, and Criccieth is where it tastes best. Something about eating it in the town it came from, looking out over the castle and the bay.
Criccieth is about twenty-five minutes from Llanbedrog, which puts it just outside the natural Abersoch orbit. But we think it's absolutely worth making the drive for an afternoon. The town is lovely, the castle is spectacular, and the ice cream at the end of a walk along the seafront is... well. You'll see.
A practical note
The Llŷn is not short of ice cream options beyond these four! You'll find decent scoops at beach cafés and village shops all over the peninsula. But these are the ones we'd actually go out of our way for. Two Islands and Cariad are both in Abersoch, which makes a double-scoop afternoon very easy to arrange. Glasu is a good reason to explore Pwllheli properly. And Cadwaladers in Criccieth is the trip you'll be glad you made.
Start close to home. Work your way west. Finish in Criccieth with a vanilla cone and a view of the castle.
You're welcome!
Chris and Georgina x