There are towns you visit because of a monument, a landscape or a famous street.

Hay-on-Wye is different.

Here, books have become part of the identity of the town itself.

During my journey through Wales, Hay-on-Wye was one of those places that felt immediately distinctive. Old stone buildings, independent shops, narrow streets and books appearing almost everywhere create an atmosphere that is difficult to confuse with anywhere else.

And standing above much of that story is Hay Castle.

In this photograph, there is even a small sign in the foreground that perfectly introduces the place:

“Hay on Wye — World's First Book Town.”

That is not just a tourist slogan. It is an important part of Hay's modern history.

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📍 A Small Welsh Town on the Border

Hay-on-Wye — Y Gelli Gandryll in Welsh — lies in Powys, close to the border between Wales and England.

The town developed beside the River Wye, in a region where Welsh and English influences have met for centuries.

Its geographical position also explains part of its turbulent past.

During the Middle Ages, this was frontier territory — the Welsh Marches — where castles were not simply symbols of prestige. They were instruments of defence and control.

Today the atmosphere could hardly be more different.

Hay is compact, relaxed and easily explored on foot. The surrounding countryside invites walking, cycling and journeys along the River Wye, while the centre has developed a character strongly associated with independent businesses, cafés and, above all, books.

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📚 How Hay Became the Town of Books

The transformation of Hay-on-Wye into an international literary destination is largely associated with one extraordinary character:

Richard Booth.

In the 1960s, Booth began buying enormous quantities of second-hand books and encouraged the creation of bookshops throughout the town.

The idea worked.

Books began to occupy old buildings and unexpected spaces, gradually transforming this small border town into what became known as the world's first Book Town.

But Booth did not stop there.

In 1977, with a considerable sense of humour and an equally considerable talent for publicity, he declared Hay-on-Wye an independent kingdom and proclaimed himself its king.

He even appointed his horse as prime minister.

It sounds almost fictional, but that eccentric gesture helped attract international attention to Hay and reinforced the unconventional personality that the town still celebrates.

Walking through its streets today, that legacy remains impossible to miss.

Bookshops are not simply businesses here.

They are part of the landscape.

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🏰 Hay Castle — Almost 900 Years Looking Over the Town

The building in my photograph carries a much older story.

The origins of Hay Castle go back to the Norman period, with the surviving stone keep generally associated with the late 12th century and the powerful de Braose family.

Local legend gives the story a more colourful version.

According to tradition, Matilda de Braose built the castle in a single night and, after completing it, threw a stone across the River Wye.

History is rarely quite that spectacular, but legends have their own way of surviving.

The castle certainly experienced plenty of real drama.

It was attacked and damaged several times during the conflicts that shaped the Welsh borderlands. King John burned the castle and town in 1216, and Llywelyn the Great attacked them again in 1231.

What we see today is therefore not the product of a single period.

It is architecture accumulated through centuries.

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From Fortress to Home

One of the most interesting things about Hay Castle is the contrast visible in the photograph.

On the left stands the heavy medieval structure — thick walls, narrow openings and the unmistakable character of a defensive building.

Then the architecture changes.

Attached to the fortress is a much more elegant Jacobean mansion, constructed around 1640, when the border region had become considerably more peaceful.

Suddenly the castle was no longer primarily about defence.

Large windows, decorative gables and domestic spaces belonged to another way of life.

The building had evolved from fortress to residence.

Centuries later, it would change identity once again.

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👑 The Castle and the King of Books

There is a wonderful connection between Hay's medieval and modern stories.

Richard Booth eventually purchased Hay Castle in the 1960s.

The ancient fortress became part of his ambitious experiment to transform the town through second-hand books.

The castle itself was used in connection with the growing book trade, linking a building created for medieval power with the cultural identity for which Hay would eventually become famous.

Two serious fires, in 1939 and 1977, caused major damage to parts of the complex, and by the beginning of the 21st century significant conservation work was necessary.

The Hay Castle Trust was established in 2011, and after an extensive restoration project the castle reopened to the public in 2022.

Today it has another chapter in its long life, functioning as a centre for culture, arts and education.

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🎪 A Town That Celebrates Ideas

Hay's literary character eventually grew far beyond its bookshops.

Since 1988, the town has hosted the Hay Festival, bringing writers, thinkers, artists and readers together and turning this small Welsh community into an international meeting point for literature and ideas.

For a place of such modest size, its cultural reputation is remarkable.

And perhaps that is what makes Hay-on-Wye so enjoyable to explore.

It does not feel like a town that simply preserves its history behind museum doors.

Its past has been reused.

A medieval castle became a home.

A castle later became associated with books.

Old buildings became bookshops.

And a small market town became internationally known through literature.

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📷 One Photograph, Several Centuries

That is what I now see when I look again at this photograph.

At first, it is simply an attractive old Welsh castle.

Then the layers begin to appear.

A Norman stronghold.

A Jacobean residence.

A town shaped by the border between two countries.

An eccentric self-proclaimed king.

Thousands upon thousands of second-hand books.

And a small sign at street level proudly announcing:

WORLD'S FIRST BOOK TOWN

Sometimes a photograph becomes more interesting after discovering the stories hidden inside it.

Hay-on-Wye certainly gave me plenty to discover.

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"In Hay-on-Wye, history is written in stone — but its identity is written in books."

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📷 Photo Notes

Series: Wales Through My Lens
Location: Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales
Subject: Hay Castle
Genre: Travel / Architecture Photography
Historical layers: Norman • Jacobean • Victorian • Modern
Known for: Bookshops • Hay Castle • Hay Festival • River Wye
Travel impression: Historic • Literary • Eccentric • Welcoming

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