Pub of the Week: The Red Lion

I have a very simple rule when it comes to finding new pubs. If I see a hand-painted wooden sign with a pub name on it pointing over a stone bridge into a tiny little village, the pub is bound to be great. The Red Lion at Langthwaite proves that rule 100 per cent.
The pub sits in a cluster of beautiful stone houses and is a simple one-room affair with a gas fire at one end and the bar at the other. Not that you can see much of the bar as it’s festooned with produce. Apparently also doubling as the village shop, the beer pumps are hidden behind crisps and nuts and scratchings and sweets and maps and postcards and all the bells and whistles your average walker can desire. It seems that it’s mainly walkers and cyclists that know of or find the Red Lion, so frequently do they appear to sit on the benches in the sun trap yard out front to get their breath back and sup a pint.
Despite it being tucked away, film crews have also discovered the pub. It featured in the opening titles of All Creatures Great And Small and has played host to several other ‘it’s reet gradely in Yorkshire’ productions.
The food available is restricted to pies, pasties, soup and sandwiches and the drink selection is the same Black Sheep array found all over the Dales, but a visit to the Red Lion isn’t really about food and drink, it’s about visiting a wonderful community pub and feeling like you’ve found yourself a little secret.
The Red Lion, Langthwaite, Richmond, North Yorkshire DL11 6RE. Tel: 01748 884218, langthwaite-redlion.co.uk

About The Author

Dave Lee

Dave Lee is TV producer and film-maker who also writes on food & drink, travel and culture for various publications. He is a regular contributor on BBC Radio 4 and the Yorkshire Post. Worryingly, he believes that the finest food on earth is the pattie butty.

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