The Red Lion, Barnard Castle

Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Red Lion

We were hoping that this would be our favourite pub of the day in County Durham, as we'd booked an overnight stay in the village of Cotherstone. Our hopes were realised.

Opening hours here are limited to 5-9, 6 days a week. We arrived to find the pub busy and there was a constant stream of people coming and going to/from the main bar which is quite compact in size. The room is carpeted with a dartboard above the fireplace and a few trophies standing either side of the fireplace. The bar can be found in the corner, where there is an entrance to another unexplored overflow room. I didn't actually see anybody go through there, with everybody seemingly knowing everybody else and crowding into the bar.

The landlord is a really amiable guy who clearly knows about his beers. Apparently, the pub had longer opening hours before Covid but he has decided to slow down a little, which meant an influx of people coming in just before 9 for last orders and an exodus of people (many of whom headed to the village's other pub) just after 9!

The 2 cask ales are both from Aysgarth - Butter Tubs & Aysgarth Falls. Ciders were Kemp's Special Reserve & Vintage & Snail's Bank Rhubarb Cider, Tutti Frutti Cider, Tumbledown, Alice & Very Perry. I had an interesting conversation with the landlord about the Kemp's. He was surprised that I had previously found the cider in another pub, as he was only aware of the Orb micropub in Darlington stocking it. I had both of the Kemp's ciders, which were just as good as I remembered. The Aysgarth Falls was also in good condition.

Exterior signage is for Cameron's Brewery but the pub does not appear to be under their stewardship (certainly not now, anyway). I thought that the village of Cotherstone was a really lovely place and the Red Lion appears to be the place where most of the villager's congregate and with good reason.

On 3^rd June 2026 - rating: 7
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