Embarrassed about recently cleared out city (5)
I believe the answer is:
derry
'city' is the definition.
(I know that Derry is a city)
'embarrassed about recently cleared' is the wordplay.
'embarrassed' becomes 'red' (someone may blush or go red when embarrassed).
'about' says the letters should be written backwards.
'cleared' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (the inside letters are cleared out).
'recently' with its middle taken out is 'ry'.
'red' reversed gives 'der'.
'der'+'ry'='DERRY'
'out' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for derry that I've seen before include "'The London - - Air' (mus.)" , "Ulster city" , "Port" .)