Richard Booth's Bookshop sits on the corner with a million-odd volumes' worth of competition down the street, because Hay has more than twenty bookshops for a town of 1,675 people. It calls itself the National Book Town of Wales, and the claim is earned: the old castle bookshop was once recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest second-hand bookshop in the world. You will not run out of things to read here. You may run out of shelf space at home.
The bookselling was one man's doing. Richard Booth founded the book-town in the early 1960s, out of the old fire station, and on 1 April 1977 he declared Hay an independent kingdom, crowned himself King Richard, Cœur du Livres, sold dukedoms and knighthoods, and appointed his horse Goldie as Prime Minister. The Welsh government issued a statement clarifying that Hay was not, in fact, independent.
The eating is good for a town this size. The Old Black Lion, a 17th-century coaching inn on Lion Street, holds two AA Rosettes and cooks changing British menus under chef Mark Turton — 21-day-matured local rib-eye, roast rack of lamb, crispy belly pork, pan-seared salmon, Sunday roasts. One room is named after Oliver Cromwell, who is said to have stayed while the Roundheads besieged the castle up the hill. There's live jazz in the Main Bar on Fridays.
The Three Tuns is reputed to be the oldest surviving house in Hay, a 16th-century timber-framed building now encased in stone, with a huge inglenook and a dog-leg staircase. The menu leans Italian and, in winter, comes to you in front of the fire. A former landlady, Lucy Powell, once admitted being too scared to report the men who turned up in 1963 in the aftermath of the Great Train Robbery.
For pies, Kilverts does home-made ones daily and keeps up to five guest ales; the Hay Tap makes savoury pies on the premises. The Blue Boar is the family-owned one, two seating areas, a log fire in each. Hay Deli on Lion Street handles cheese, deli and whole foods, almost next door to Booth's. There are two butchers and a greengrocer, a Thursday street market, and a Saturday market that still runs in the old Cheese Market hall on Memorial Square, built in 1835 to sell dairy.
St Mary's has a church on the site since the 12th century; the tower is the only medieval part left, mostly 15th-century with a Victorian castellated top. Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, preached here in 1188 while recruiting for the Third Crusade.
The town sits on the Wye at the edge of the Brecon Beacons, with the Black Mountains walling off the southern view. Offa's Dyke Path and the Wye Valley Walk both pass through and part company here. The Warren, a mile and a half of riverbank upstream, has been a swimming and picnicking spot since it was a medieval rabbit warren. Hay Bluff and Twmpa rise behind for the more ambitious.
The nearest trains are 22 miles east at Hereford; the T14 bus runs there and to Brecon several times a day. Hay's own line closed in 1962, which leaves more room for the books.