Wales
Laugharne
Dylan Thomas's writing shed above the estuary, in the town he called the strangest in Wales.
Dylan Thomas called it the strangest town in Wales, then chose to live in it. Laugharne sits where the River Taf widens into Carmarthen Bay, and the Boathouse where he spent his last four years hangs over the estuary below the shed where he wrote, with the whole tidal sweep of the water in the window.
He first came in 1934 and stayed, on and off, for nearly twenty years. Castle House was where he and Caitlin got together, and its owner, the writer Richard Hughes, let him work in a gazebo on the castle ramparts; the castle itself, a thirteenth-century stronghold made into a Tudor mansion by Sir John Perrot and now in Cadw's care, is where he wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog in the summerhouse. In 1949 a benefactor put up the money for the Boathouse and let the family live there rent-free, without plumbing, water fetched from the public tap down the hill; it is a museum with a tearoom now, and the writing shed stands as he left it. Browns Hotel, a pub since 1752, was his other office, its number given out as his own; today it is a boutique hotel whose restaurant, Dexter's, rears its own cattle on a farm nearby. Laugharne is widely taken as the original of Llareggub in Under Milk Wood, and it hosts a literary weekend each April; it is small, tidal and slightly out of time, which is what he loved about it.
Solo
The writing shed first, the estuary walk beneath it, then the castle summerhouse and an afternoon with a paperback in Browns.
Couple
A room at Browns, dinner at Dexter's, and the Boathouse at opening time with the tide full under the window.
Friends
Come for the Laugharne Weekend in April, or any weekend built around the pubs Thomas drank in and the shore walk.
- Dylan Thomas first came to Laugharne in 1934, called it the strangest town in Wales, and lived here on and off for nearly two decades.
- From 1949 until his death in 1953 he lived in the Boathouse, given to him rent-free by a benefactor, and wrote in the shed above it; the town is widely taken as the model for Llareggub in Under Milk Wood.
- He wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog in the summerhouse of the castle, a thirteenth-century fortress turned Tudor mansion by Sir John Perrot, who died in the Tower in 1592.
- Browns Hotel, his pub, dates from 1752; he spent so long there he gave its telephone number as his own.
Dinner at Dexter's at Browns, the hotel that opened as a pub in 1752 and whose restaurant is named for the Dexter cattle raised on its own farm nearby.
Tea in the Boathouse itself, now a museum with a tearoom, looking out at the water Thomas looked at.
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