Hay On Wye, Wales
Book Town, Population: Books
"Where the shops outnumber the plot twists"
Official Coat of Arms
A shield bearing a leaning tower of hardbacks rampant, flanked by two dusty castle ruins, above a scroll reading 'Quod Legisti Non Redimes' (roughly: you will not get your deposit back on that paperback). Surmounted by a single haggard bookshop cat, watchful.
TripAdvisor Review
★★★★☆ 4/5
"Came for a weekend, left three days later having missed two meetings because I got stuck reading in a second-hand bookshop that used to be a cinema. The town is essentially a Borges short story with a car park at the edge. Lovely if you like books, mildly claustrophobic if you don't, and good luck finding anywhere open past 5pm outside festival season."— Marjorie Fenwick-Hall, Cheltenham
Property Listing
Charming Welsh border town offering unrivalled access to literally over a million second-hand books, a genuine medieval castle you can just wander past, and an internationally renowned literary festival that briefly quadruples the population and the parking chaos every May. Perfect for the buyer who has run out of shelf space but not, crucially, out of money.
Twinned With
Alexandria — Both are small settlements whose entire identity is 'we have a lot of books and would like you to acknowledge that'.
Supporting Evidence
placeholder