Hay-on-Wye is the town of books, and it is that because one man decided it would be. Richard Booth opened a bookshop here in 1962, kept buying, and turned a small border town under the Black Mountains into a place with more second-hand books than residents. The idea escaped: there are now book towns modelled on Hay in more than twenty countries.
12 places to stay · showing 1–10
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A traditional pub with rooms in the heart of Hay-on-Wye — a lively hub for locals and visitors, and a characterful base.
Hay on Wye, Mid Wales
A characterful cottage at Three Cocks near Hay-on-Wye in Mid Wales, sleeping 10 across five bedrooms, with a private hot tub, a woodburner and a games…
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A grand Victorian country house hotel set in 130 acres near Hay-on-Wye, with 28 en-suite rooms, an indoor swimming pool and sauna, a restaurant and bar…
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A characterful Edwardian bed and breakfast in Whitney-on-Wye, near Hay-on-Wye, with en-suite rooms, self-catering apartments and a coach house, a kitchen garden and a wood-fired pizza…
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A beautiful Victorian guest house in Hay-on-Wye, with magnificent views of the Black Mountains — great for couples and walkers.
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A stylish two-bedroom cottage in the centre of Hay-on-Wye, sleeping four in two en-suite king bedrooms, with an open-plan living space and a private patio. Dog-friendly.
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A luxury five-bedroom stone farmhouse near Hay-on-Wye, sleeping ten, with a private hot tub, a games room and open fires, set in the hills of the…
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A 16th-century guest house in the middle of Hay-on-Wye with eight en-suite rooms, and the only indoor swimming pool and sauna of any place to stay…
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A beautiful Grade II listed Georgian hotel in the book town of Hay-on-Wye, blending classic elegance with modern, stylish comfort.
Hay on Wye, Wye Valley
A welcoming family-run bed and breakfast in the centre of Hay-on-Wye, with en-suite double, twin and single rooms, a guest lounge and garden, a hearty Welsh…
Spend the first day working through the shops. Richard Booth’s on Lion Street runs over three floors, and there is an honesty bookcase in the castle grounds, open all hours, a pound a book. Look round Hay Castle itself, restored and open. The Festival takes over the town for eleven days at the end of May, and the 2027 one runs from 27 May to 6 June.
It is a border town, and the border does it a favour. Hay sits where the Black Mountains, the Wye and the English shires all meet, so the country changes character within a few miles in any direction. Brecon is half an hour west and Hereford half an hour east. Abergavenny is south over the Gospel Pass, a single-track mountain road and the highest in Wales, so allow far longer than the mileage suggests.
Hay was a Norman border town with a castle, and stayed a quiet one for eight centuries. Then in 1962 a young man named Richard Booth opened a second-hand bookshop, and kept opening them. He bought libraries wholesale out of America and filled a cinema, a workhouse and the castle itself with stock.
On 1 April 1977 Booth declared Hay an independent kingdom and himself its king. He issued passports in the pubs, launched a rowing gunboat on the Wye and appointed his horse Prime Minister. It was a stunt, and it worked: the newspapers came, and so did the buyers.
The Festival arrived in 1988 and did the rest. What Booth started has since been copied in more than twenty countries as the international book-town movement, all of it traceable to one bookseller in a town this small.
The shops are still the reason to come. Richard Booth’s on Lion Street is the biggest, over three floors. Hay Cinema Bookshop, Murder and Mayhem, Mostly Maps and the Children’s Bookshop are all a few minutes’ walk from it.
Hay Castle is open to visitors again after a long restoration. The honesty bookcase in its grounds never closes, and it works on a pound a book and a coin box.
The Festival is the one week to plan around. It runs for eleven days from the end of May, and rooms in Hay go months ahead. The rest of the year the town is quiet enough to browse all day.
Hay-on-Wye is the town of books, with a castle above it and the Black Mountains behind. Prices start at about £55 a night. Rooms for Festival week go a long way in advance, and the town is much quieter either side of it. Monmouth lies down the river, and the whole Wye Valley is worth a week.
See all: Wye Valley accommodation
Browse Wye Valley by type: B&Bs & Guest Houses · Hotels & Inns · Cottages & Self-Catering
Nearby towns: Chepstow · Monmouth · Tintern · Usk
Nearby areas: South Wales · Brecon Beacons
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