The Red Lion stands above Newquay Harbour, within the old working part of the town. Its harbour-side setting makes it a natural starting point for stories about sailors, cargoes and the coast—but a convincing setting is not evidence that every tunnel tale attached to it is true.
An 1888 newspaper account described a passage explored from the Fistral side and linked the story with the Red Lion. The separate passage entry follows that claim, its wording and the problems with mapping a continuous route from the evidence.
The pub and the supposed underground connection are distinct subjects. One is a surviving place in the town; the other is a historical report that needs interpreting. Keeping both entries allows a reader to understand the setting before deciding what the tunnel story actually establishes.
Sources
Smuggling Caves at Newquay: transcription of the 1888 report: https://cornwalluk.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/smuggling-caves-at-newquay/ Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey: Newquay: https://newquayplan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/csus_newquay_report.pdf
Connected subjects
Read on
- The Tunnel Under Newquay: Chasing the Fistral–Red Lion Passage
In September 1888, somebody in Newquay was sufficiently irritated by an argument about smuggling caves to write a letter. Another correspondent had apparently said there were no such caves.
- I Went Looking for Cornwall's Smugglers' Tunnels
I remembered a smugglers’ tunnel under a Cornish pub. The records confirmed the building, not the smuggling—and that became the more interesting story.