Hay-on-Wye: The Bookshop Town on the Welsh Border

Richard Booth opened a second-hand bookshop in Hay Castle in 1961, the town had a population of around 1,500 people, and nobody thought much would come of it. By the 1970s and 1980s, as other booksellers followed Booth’s lead and the town developed a critical mass, Hay-on-Wye had become something genuinely unusual: a small market town whose economic identity was built almost entirely around used books. In 1977, Booth declared Hay an independent kingdom with himself as king, an act of self-promotional eccentricity that generated international press coverage and cemented the town’s reputation. It worked. The town now has 25-30 second-hand and antiquarian bookshops serving visitors from well beyond the usual rural Wales catchment area.

The Hay Festival, held in late May and early June, runs for 10 days and brings authors, politicians, scientists, and major literary names to a programme of talks in tented venues. Bill Clinton called it “the Woodstock of the mind” in 1999, which is the kind of endorsement that is simultaneously overblown and effectively accurate. Individual event tickets run £10-30; accommodation for 20 miles around fills months ahead during festival week.

The Bookshops

A half-day browse covers most of the main shops. The town is small enough to find them all on foot without a map.

Richard Booth’s Bookshop on Lion Street is the largest, occupying a former cinema. Specialist sections in agriculture, Welsh local history, arts and crafts, and general literature. Booth himself died in 2019 but the shop continues and the café on the first floor is good.

Addyman Books on Lion Street comprises three interlinked shops with general second-hand stock, particularly strong in fiction and humanities. The Murder and Mayhem specialises in crime, science fiction, and fantasy. Boz Books on Castle Street covers antiquarian and Welsh/border history.

Prices are not uniformly cheap – first editions and signed copies command standard collector prices, and the shops know what they have. Most general stock runs £2-10 for paperbacks, £5-20 for hardback nonfiction. The charity bookshops (Oxfam runs one) are typically cheaper for common titles.

Hay Castle

The 12th-century motte-and-bailey site with a Norman keep and a Jacobean mansion attached was Richard Booth’s bookshop for decades. A restoration project completed in 2022 converted the main building into an arts centre, café, and exhibition space, open to the public. The castle garden is now accessible. The grounds give views over the town toward the Black Mountains.

Walking

The Black Mountains (the northernmost section of the Brecon Beacons National Park) are directly accessible from Hay, and the town is a better walking base than many people realise.

Hay Bluff at 677 metres is the escarpment north of the Gospel Pass. The views extend north over the Wye Valley into Herefordshire and south over the mountains toward Abergavenny. The circuit from Hay via the Ridgeway ridge and Offa’s Dyke Path is a 15km day walk with serious views throughout.

Offa’s Dyke Path, the long-distance footpath following the England-Wales border, passes through Hay. The earthwork itself – built by the Mercian king Offa in the 8th century as a boundary marker – is visible in sections north of town.

River Wye canoes: the river is accessible for hire at several points near Hay. Paddling downstream through the valley for a half-day is a popular addition to the bookshops. Hire runs around £30-40 per person per day from Hay-on-Wye Canoes.

Eating

Broad Canvas on Oxford Road is a café and arts space in a converted outbuilding: good coffee, seasonal food, around £8-14 for lunch. The Blue Boar on Castle Street is a proper pub with cask ales from local breweries and food that leans on local produce, around £12-18, reliable year-round. The Old Electric Shop on Backfold is the best option for breakfast coffee.

Thursday is market day in the town centre: local produce stalls, occasional booksellers, craft vendors. It is small but genuine.

Getting There

No direct train. The nearest station is Hereford (on the Cardiff-Manchester line). Bus service from Hereford to Hay runs 2-3 times daily (route 39/40, around 75 minutes). By car from London: 3 hours via M4 and A40. From Birmingham: 90 minutes.

Where to Stay

The Swan Hotel on Church Street is the main hotel in town: a 19th-century coaching inn, around £90-130 per night. The Old Black Lion on Lion Street is a pub with rooms, one of the older inns in town, around £75-110, good real ales. During festival week, book everything at least 3-4 months ahead. The rest of the year, Hay is accessible without much advance planning.