Hay-on-Wye

The small town of Hay-on-Wye (or, simply Hay) is known for it's annual (book) Hay Festival in late May that regularly attracts top authors but the city itself is worth a visit for it's numerous independent book stores and cafes, it's small town market and the beautiful scenery.

Located on, of course, the Wye river it is also right on the England/Wales border as well on the northern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

The small castle on the hill in the town is a ruin but offers some good views of the surrounding countryside.

The small central car park at the base of the castle is home to the Thursday market but the “Cheese Market” building often has small booths selling crafts.

To be sure, it can be quite busy with tourists so best to try to avoid weekends or bank holidays when visiting.

Looking out over the town is Hay Castle with a history that dates back to the 11th/12th century as a medieval fortification, becoming a 17th-century mansion house that was in use up until the 20th century. It now houses several cafes and a small museum with frequent guided tours with the entrance fee allowing you to visit as many times as you like in a year.

In the museum, there is a room dedicated to the “King of Hay”, Richard Booth, while the top of the tower offers great views out over Hay and the surrounding countryside, with the dingy cellar below the tower showing an animated film explaining in pictures the history of the castle.

The castle often hosts contemporary art displays as well as the occasional craft fair in the large, grass courtyard accessed via steps located near the town square (or via a ramp near the main town car park).

Though the shops come and go, here are some of my favourite book stores in Hay:

• Addyman Books (39 Lion St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AA) is one of my favourite with it's numerous small rooms piled high with books…often on the floor. A great source of unusual, used books.

• The Addyman Annexe (27 Castle St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5DF) is much smaller than the main store but often has some interesting finds.

• Hay Cinema Bookshop (Castle St, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5DF) is easily the biggest book store in town with discounted new books as well as a huge assortment of used. Worth a short walk from the town centre to visit.

• Richard Booth's Bookshop (44 Lion St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AA) is key bookstore in Hay having a fantastic and difficult-to-miss facade with three large wooden-floors and there is an amazing (though expensive) café towards the back (see my review here). Used books can be found in the rather low-beamed (watch your head) basement.

You can't talk about Hay without talking about the somewhat eccentric “King of Hay”, Richard Booth (1938-2019), who, love him or hate him, made Hay the town it is today. Born into a wealthy family, he developed a passion for used books and seeing that they were being needlessly discarded, decided to open up a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye which at the time was suffering from the economic fall out of two world wars, with many closed shops.

He bought books from around the world, including from closing libraries, to build his book empire and in light of the UK joining the EU, declared Hay-on-Wye to be independent and crowned himself “King” which, of course, was all a publicity stunt but it worked with the media taking a huge interest. Now, Hay largely owes it's popularity to the King.

See the exhibit dedicated to the King in the Hay Castle which tells more of his story including his party lifestyle.

The town is easy enough to get around on foot. The biggest car park is the “Oxford Road Car Park” in the south of the town having great views of the Brecon Beacons which is a “pay and display” (you need to enter your car's number plate and when I last visited the machine was accepting plastic and cash). Conveniently, this is also where the small town visitor centre (and pay toilets) are also located.

I would never, unless absolutely necessary, consider driving through the narrow, steep streets of the town…Most of the roads are one way.

For additional information please see:

• Hay-on-Wye - “The official site”
• Review of 'The Hay Festival 2021'
• Review of 'The Hay Festival 2022'
• Wikipedia - Hay-on-Wye