Old earl turning red, inflamed by absorbing strip (7)
I believe the answer is:
warwick
'old earl' is the definition.
'turning red inflamed by absorbing strip' is the wordplay.
'turning' says the letters should be written backwards.
'red inflamed' becomes 'raw'.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'absorbing strip' becomes 'wick'.
'raw' reversed gives 'war'.
'war'+'wick'='WARWICK'
(Other definitions for warwick that I've seen before include "Castle" , "West Midlands county town" , "English county town" , "Midland county town" , "He was known as the Kingmaker" .)