Llanelli sits on the north shore of the Loughor estuary, looking across at the Gower. It was one of the great industrial towns of Wales, and it has spent thirty years turning its old works and docks back into open coast.
11 places to stay · showing 1–10
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
An accessible four-bedroom holiday home at Llangennech near Llanelli, sleeping 7, dog-friendly, with a ground-floor wet room, profile beds and panoramic estuary views.
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A welcoming timber lodge overlooking its own coarse-fishing lake near Kidwelly and Llanelli, sleeping four, with a private deck and lake views. Two dogs welcome.
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A spacious seven-bedroom detached house near Llanelli, sleeping fifteen, with a private hot tub, games room, conservatory and two sitting rooms. Two dogs welcome.
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A comfortable modern static caravan on a coastal holiday park near Kidwelly and Llanelli, sleeping four, with an on-site swimming pool, gym, sauna and restaurant, plus…
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A friendly family-run coastal hotel at Burry Port between Llanelli and Pembrey, with 13 en-suite rooms, the Ash Bar & Grill, a lounge bar and private…
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A characterful stone cottage in the centre of Kidwelly near Llanelli, sleeping six, with a range kitchen, a freestanding bath and an enclosed courtyard. A short…
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A charming glamping lodge on a quiet hillside near Llanelli, sleeping two, with its own private wood-fired hot tub, a fire pit and countryside views. Two…
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A striking architect-designed three-storey house at Foelgastell near Llanelli, sleeping ten, with a private hot tub, designer kitchen and five smart bedrooms. Dogs welcome.
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A contemporary all-ground-floor cottage near Kidwelly on the Carmarthenshire coast, sleeping ten across five bedrooms, with a woodburner, barn games room and enclosed courtyard.
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
A four-star country-house hotel at Felinfoel, Llanelli, with 50 en-suite rooms, a restaurant, and the Eden Spa featuring an indoor heated pool, gym, sauna and treatments.…
Llanelly House, on the corner by the parish church, was built in 1714 for Sir Thomas Stepney, the local member of parliament at the time. It is one of the finest Georgian town houses in Wales. It stood derelict and close to demolition before it was restored and opened to visitors.
The Wetland Centre lies out on the estuary at the eastern end, five hundred acres of lagoon and reedbed with hides looking over the sand. Carmarthen is half an hour north, and Swansea and the Gower are twenty minutes east.
Llanelli was called Tinopolis, and it earned the name. By the end of the nineteenth century there were around twenty tinplate works in and around the town. South-west Wales was turning out roughly nine tenths of the tinplate used in the world, and Llanelli was the middle of it.
Three quarters of it went to America. In 1900 about five thousand people worked in the trade, in a town of twenty thousand. Almost every household here had somebody in the works. Then the American tariffs came, and the yards went quiet.
The town made more than tin. Llanelly Pottery worked here from 1839 until 1922, and its hand-painted cockerel plates still turn up all over the county. The works also pressed tinplate into saucepans for the whole of Britain. Supporters of rival rugby clubs used that to mock Llanelli, waving saucepans and calling it a town of tinsmiths. Llanelli took the insult and made it the badge.
Sospan Fach means little saucepan, and it is still the song the crowd sings. There are saucepans bolted to the tops of the posts at Parc y Scarlets, which is the only ground in world rugby you can say that about. The Scarlets play there every year from September through to May.
The rest of the town has turned outward to the estuary. Thirteen miles of coast path now run west along ground that once held the works and the slag tips, and you can cycle the length of it in an afternoon.
Parc Howard, up the hill, is free to walk into, and its museum holds the biggest collection of Llanelly pottery in public hands anywhere. The park around it is open all year, and the town centre is ten minutes downhill from the gates.
Llanelli was the middle of the tinplate trade once, and it has turned that whole shore into thirteen miles of coast path. Rooms and whole places start around £75. The Gower is twenty minutes east and Carmarthen half an hour north. Cefn Sidan and Pembrey sit at the western end of the coast path.
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Nearby towns: Carmarthen · Laugharne
Nearby areas: Pembrokeshire · Ceredigion · Swansea & Gower · Brecon Beacons
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