Doddington Milk Bar

Ice cream and milkshake lovers, hold your horses here. Painted a shade of powder blue and guarded by a life-size model cow, the cutesy Doddington Milk Bar sells meals and snacks fresh from the Maxwell family’s dairy farm. It’s a little way off the A1 at the edge of Northumberland National Park, but a fun diversion on the way to or from Scotland.

The interior is decked out like an American diner – baby blue and navy booths, breakfast bar and zingy orange lamps – and service is faultlessly friendly to match. Breakfasts are free range and delicious. Doddington’s own cheese goes into the scrumptious lunchtime rarebits – pick up a piece at the small cheese counter if you’re seduced.

But it’s the ice cream that people (especially little people) really come for. The counter has around ten varieties, such as lemon meringue and caramel and sea salt, that can be served in cones or tubs, or whizzed up into a milkshake and devoured in seconds.