Our previous trip to Hay was in September 2020, when Covid restrictions meant some shops were closed and most eateries only offered takeaway or outdoor dining. At the end of my write-up, I vowed to go back before I turned 40. I stayed true to my word and we arrived in town the day before my 40th birthday. (Not only that, but I’ve completed the Triple Crown of British Book Towns in a year, what with visits to Wigtown in June and Sedbergh in August. My hauls were comparable in all three and my spending in Hay (£37.95 for 15 books) was somewhere between Sedbergh’s low (£24.50 for 13) and Wigtown’s high (£44 for 16).)
Every time we visit, we find some businesses have closed but others have opened. There’s still a core of 12 bookshops, but as in Sedbergh, there are other establishments with a few shelves of books, so there are 15–20 places in town where you can browse books. That’s plenty for anyone to be getting on with in a long weekend.
I had an action plan for our three days that moved from cheapest (honesty shelves below the castle, £1 area outside Cinema; Oxfam and British Red Cross charity shops; Hay-on-Wye Booksellers; Clock Tower Books) through mid-price (Addyman Books, Cinema) to the more expensive options (Green Ink, Booths). The town’s newest shop, as pictured in my birthday post, is Gay on Wye, which, with North Books, replaced Pembertons as sellers of new stock. (Booth’s, the Castle and the Old Electric Shop also sell curated selections of new books.)
New to us on this trip:
- The Bean Box, a terrific and reasonably priced mini coffee bar run out of a horse box by the river. They have a nice garden and a secondhand book selection, and you can sit on their patio or at tables and chairs closer to the river view.
Felin Fach Griffin, a country pub about a 20-minute drive from Hay, where we booked a table for my birthday lunch. Excellent food and a cosy atmosphere, with hill views from the windows.- Hay Castle, which has had scaffolding up and been half-derelict ever since our first visit in 2004. At various points it has had books for sale. In 2022, it opened to the public as a visitor attraction. A projected animation gives a jaunty historical overview from the Middle Ages to the present day. We especially liked the room of Richard Booth and Book Town memorabilia and the viewing platform at the top. Booth himself was the last to live in the castle. On our earliest trips we would occasionally see him around town – a loud, shuffling (after his stroke) eccentric.
- Hay Distillery, where I had a delicious gin cocktail on my birthday evening.
“It is obviously impossible to catalogue over one million books and these listings therefore represent only a very small selection of the books that we have in stock in Hay. We would point out that one of the chief services of the secondhand bookshop is to provide the customer the opportunity to find the book he did not know existed.”
~Richard Booth, “Books for Sale” periodical (1981?)
“The new book is for the ego; the second-hand book is for the intellect.”
~Richard Booth, quoted on the castle exhibit wall
When we arrived at our Airbnb, we found it had not been cleaned; no linen, etc. A cleaner belatedly came to sort it out, but the owner gave us a full refund, so a minor inconvenience got us back more than enough to pay for the rest of the weekend.
After the final day’s shopping, this was my final book haul. We had particularly good luck in the Addyman’s alleyway, where all books are £1 – we got a bunch for presents (not pictured).
I also opened a first set of birthday books. (My husband and I are having a joint birthday party later this month; I daresay there may be more book parcels to open after.)
Hay is gentrified and hipster now in ways that would probably have Booth turning in his grave. While we slightly miss its dusty, ramshackle past, it’s the new businesses and the Festival that have helped it survive.
If you’ve never been to Hay, I’d certainly recommend it. I possibly slightly prefer Wigtown for its community atmosphere, but it’s more than twice as far away and has fewer book shopping opportunities, which for many of us is the main draw, as well as measly food options. Depending on where you live or are traveling in from, Hay is also likely to be the easiest of the three UK book towns to get to, including by public transport.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Sounds perfect. I’d love to go to the Felin Fach Inn too!
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I’d highly recommend it! We had a lovely meal.
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Lovely, thank you for sharing! I like that copy of How To Make An American Quilt, I had the hardback. I am trying to remember the name of the bookshop on the corner which had a basement full of £1 books … oh, it was The Sensible Bookshop – I found it in my 2006 report from what must have been my first visit there! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2006/05/15/hay-fever/
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I miss that one, and Bookends. There used to be more reliably cheap options. These days I’m better off charity shopping if it’s bargains I want, but I always find plenty to make a trip to Hay seem worthwhile. I sneezed a lot while we were there, don’t know if it was the drastic change in temperature or the air in our Airbnb, but my husband joked that I had “Hay fever”.
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Happy birthday! Sounds like a delightful trip.
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Thank you! It was.
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Oh we’ve spent many happy hours wandering round the bookshops and the festival at Hay. Well done for getting to the other two as well. The Snow Hare looks intriguing. I must investigate that one.
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I’ve still never been to the festival. Perhaps one day. Although we can’t imagine just how busy all the shops, eateries and streets could feel.
The author of The Snow Hare is a friend of someone in book club, so I thought I’d get a copy in advance of reading that for one of our future meetings. (It’s longer than the books we typically choose, though.)
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You’re very right about the festival. In the early days it was one tent and a few authors in a car park below the castle and all the books were sold locally. But when it grew huge and moved out of town, most of the eating and book buying business went to the new site. The townsfolk were not amused because they still had to cope with all the crowds without the business. Even though there is a shuttle bus its definitely a victim of its own success.
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Ah, that’s interesting. Booth et al. were definitely grumpy about the Festival, but if it weren’t for things like that and Bookstagram and the newer hipster establishments, the town could have died.
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Thanks for this post showcasing Hay as a bookish tourist destination. I’ve still not been there! By the way, has your husband stopped blogging? I’ve seen nothing from him lately.
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Oh, you should go!
He’s been a very sporadic blogger in recent years. If ever he gets a review copy offer (a rare thing), he might post about it. He was just saying to me this past weekend that he needs to get writing again!
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Tell him he has at least one fan eager to see his next post! OK. Hay on Wye next year then. It’s on the list.
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Love to go to hay on wye
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Highly recommended!
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Beautiful Ruins!! So good.
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You and Laila have both been very enthusiastic about it, and then I was reminded about it at the Hungerford Bookshop summer party and added it to my wish list.
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I do love that book! (And Jess Walter!)
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You can add my name to that list: I love it!
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The last time I went to Hay I was shocked at how many bookstores had closed – they’ve all moved online. It’s understandable given the burden of business rates but it means the dynamic of the town has changed because there are now more shops selling “lifestyle” kinds of expensive home decor which doesn’t interest me that much.
I’m just reading The Snow Hare. It needs to pick up the pace somewhat….
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Yes, it’s sad how many bookshops have closed or moved, but there are still the several large flagship ones and the two new-books bookshops seem to be doing a good trade. Any bibliophile can still have a great short break there.
I am somewhat worried by how long it is…
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Looks like a perfect birthday weekend—reminding me, too, once again, that I *have* to go to Hay!
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Definitely!
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Thanks for the info on where to enjoy Haye and its surroundings.
Keep well
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Some day I hope to get to Hay-on-Wye. Meanwhile, thanks for this visit I could read about here! (You’ll love Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins.)
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I hope you get a chance to go.
I’ve not read Jess Walter before and I’m looking forward to it.
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Sounds like a lovely trip and a great way to celebrate!
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Yep, it was just right 🙂
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Yay for Hay, for birthdays, for bargains, and for making good on your promise to yourself at the last minute!
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[…] was last in Hay-on-Wye for my 40th birthday (write-up here). We’ve decided 18 months is a decent length between visits such that we can go back and find […]
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[…] week was our ninth time visiting Hay-on-Wye. Our previous trip was in October 2023 for my 40th birthday. Prompted by my overhaul post last month, I managed to finish a couple more of […]
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