★ In our guides ↓

On Our List

The Red Lion Inn

A characterful inn right by the estuary with rooms upstairs, a lovely terrace for a wood-fired pizza and drink, and some of the best views in the village.

Address:

22 Northumberland Street, Alnmouth, Alnwick, NE66 2RJ
Call:
01665 830584

Hours:

Monday: 9am - 9pm

Tue - Thu: 12pm - 9pm

Fri - Sat: 9am - 10:30pm

Sunday: 9am - 7pm

Map

Good to Know

The Red Lion is a family-run 18th-century coaching inn at 22 Northumberland Street in Alnmouth, with a cosy 1950s lounge bar, five rooms and a garden that runs down to views across the Aln estuary.

Tom's Notebook

Best for: A pint in the garden with an estuary view, and a pub meal.

Dog friendly: In the bar and garden, but not the restaurant or bedrooms.

Food: Steak, lamb and a proper shortcrust steak pie get the warmest reviews.

Good to know: Beer festival every October; usually closed during January.

On Our List

The Red Lion kept turning up in searches around Heather & Sand, so we did some digging.

Why people seem to like it

The garden is the real surprise: a decked area at the bottom with panoramic views across the estuary, and easily one of the best spots for a pint on this stretch of coast. The cask ales are well kept, the food is praised, and the old lounge bar is listed by CAMRA for its historic interior.

Not every visit is perfect

We haven't found much to grumble about. Just note that dogs can't go in the restaurant, so on a cold day with Meg you'll be eating in the bar.

So, would we go?

Yes — that garden view alone has earned it a visit. It's a few doors from the Ex-Servicemen's Club, too.

But this isn't our review — not yet. When we've been, we'll replace it with what we found ourselves.

Heather & Sand verdict: On Our List. A characterful, family-run coaching inn with well-kept ale, praised food and one of the best beer-garden views in Northumberland.

A Little Note From Heather & Sand

We haven't quite made it here ourselves yet, but it's on our list!

We're working our way around Northumberland, personally visiting and reviewing as many of the places featured in our Listed section as we can. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

In the meantime, we do our homework. Before adding somewhere to Heather & Sand, we research it, look at what other visitors have to say and check that it has a good reputation. If the feedback isn't encouraging, it generally doesn't make our list.

Of course, a little online research is no substitute for muddy boots, a decent coffee and seeing somewhere for ourselves. So until we've visited, we'll leave the personal review to one side.

A little about us...

Heather & Sand is our little corner of Northumberland — a collection of places, stories, walks and discoveries from a county we love.

Through our Journal, Guide and Listed pages, we hope to help you discover somewhere new, revisit an old favourite or simply enjoy a little Northumberland from wherever you happen to be.

Tom, Lucy & the Heather & Sand crew.

Featured in our guides