Red Lion Hotel, High Street, Ayton

The Red Lion Hotel is a coaching inn, likely dating in part to the late 18th century, with later additions and alterations. It is a two-storey building with an attic, comprising an eight-bay range arranged in groups of four bays. A flat-roofed porch is set off to the right of the front elevation, and a segmental-arched pend opening provides access to the left. A lower, gabled projection extends from the rear. The front elevation is whitewashed render with painted dressings, while the rear is harled with sandstone rubble to the rear projection. A painted base course is present, along with projecting cills. Non-traditional timber shutters are fitted to all front openings.

The entrance elevation is divided into two four-bay ranges. The right-hand range features a projecting flat-roofed porch and a single window above. The remaining bays to the right contain single windows at both ground and first floors. The left-hand range has a glazed front door at ground floor, a single window at first floor, and a box dormer aligned above. Further bays to the left include single windows at both floors, with a consoled cornice above the ground floor opening (which was formerly a doorway). A single window is located in the penultimate bay, and a segmental-arched pend opening sits at the outer left, with a single window at first floor above it.

The majority of windows are timber sash and case windows with 12 panes of glass, although some are plate glass sashes and others are modern replacements. The roof is covered with grey slate, with red pantiles on the rear projection. Stone-coped skews and scrolled skewputts are present, along with corniced ridge and apex stacks topped with octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are also visible. The interior was not inspected in 1998.

Low, coped whitewashed boundary walls are located to the outer left and right, surmounted by painted statues. The hotel was noted in the Ordnance Survey Name Book as a two-story house with offices and stabling, occupied by Mr Thomas Bathgate and licensed to sell wines, spirits and beer. The offices and stabling have been considerably altered. The scrolled skewputts suggest the building may date back to before 1800. It is a prominent building fronting Ayton’s High Street.