An autumnal weekend in Hay-on-Wye

On the border of England and Wales, around a 90-minute drive from Bristol, Hay-on-Wye is a compact town famous for its second-hand bookshops with a castle and the beautiful river Wye running to the west.

In May it fills with visitors to Hay Festival, which has been running for 31 years, and more recently for philosophy festival How The Light Gets In, but autumn offers excellent conditions for exploring the area’s abundant nature and great local pubs.

Hay has some great local walks that are spectacular in autumn

Views of the river can be at their best at this time of year, with the leaves turning on the Wye Valley Walk and Offa’s Dyke Path and the mountains above shrouded in cloud. Both long-distance walking routes can be accessed from Hay Bridge and are a good start for exploring the northeastern tip of the Brecon Beacons for walking, climbing, caving, mountain-biking, foraging and more.

Part of Hay’s former railway line has been assimilated into a walking route, which makes for a wide and accessible riverside path.

The shallow Wye can be easier to navigate by canoe once the autumn rains begin to fall

The meandering Wye is wide and shallow so higher water in autumn can make for an easier paddle. Half-a-dozen hire companies operate on the navigable stretch from Glasbury but Want to Canoe?, run by husband-and-wife team Aubrey and Claire Fry since 2013, cater to those with little experience of canoeing, including young families and people with disabilities.

Choose from half, whole or multiple days out (from £30 per person), renting equipment that is clean and in good condition, with or without an experienced local guide. The full day is physically demanding but hugely rewarding, with a guided morning session, a much-needed break in Hay for lunch and a second unaccompanied session in the afternoon with transport back from the end point.

It takes around an hour to paddle from Glasbury to Hay-on-Wye at a gentle pace

Wildlife on the river is abundant as you float along, with pterodactyl-like grey herons, gangs of cormorants, snowy white little egrets, ginger-topped goosanders and the blue flash of kingfishers zipping over the water. Lucky canoeists may even glimpse otters near the ruins of Clifford Castle, their sleek bodies casting ripples in the clear water.

A short walk uphill from the river is Racquety Farm, owned by Ros and Geoff Garratt who have been running a B&B, camping and glamping for more than a decade. As well as traditional rooms, accommodation includes a new larch-clad self-catering holiday cottage, and several cosy geodesic domes complete with wood-burning stoves (from £75 per night), designed and built by Geoff, which guard an orchard of walnut trees.

Raquety Farm offers a range of accommodation, including geodesic domes with wood-burning stoves

Elderberries grow into the outdoor shower and the communal kitchens have all you need for a morning fry-up, to be eaten surrounded by heaving raspberry bushes, free-running pheasants and a view over to Hay and its surrounding hills.

For indoor luxury, around four miles east of Hay is Westbrook Court B&B. Down the drive and past the chocolate-box cottage owned by Kari and Chris Morgan are five unique en-suite double rooms, stylishly decorated by interior designer Kari.

Westbrook Court B&B has five unique en-suite rooms and offers breakfast on the terrace on weekdays

Four of the rooms are split over two levels, with a chic seating area downstairs, an impressive claw-footed bath and a king-sized mezzanine sleeping area upstairs. Rooms start from £95 per night, with low-season midweek deals available.

The mezzanine sleeping area in one of the brilliantly-designed rooms

Plate glass fronts look onto a huge weeping willow and glimpses of a spectacular view down to the Wye Valley, with an enormous fresh breakfast including croissants, eggs and smoked salmon served in a heaving picnic basket on the veranda during weekdays, or in the farmhouse dining room at weekends.

The town of Hay-on-Wye has undergone several reinventions since Hay Castle was built in the 11th century, and unpicking the history with a walking tour (£5 per person, lasting up to 90 minutes) is a great way to both hear the stories and get your bearings. Mari Fforde, educational activities director at Hay Castle, is one of Hay Tours’ guides and an hour with her pointing out the oldest buildings, the line of the old city walls and telling stories about inhabitants past is a fascinating way to spend a morning.

Hay Bridge is one of the town’s major landmarks

The castle itself is currently closed as it undergoes a £5m renovation to turn the fire-damaged Jacobean house into a gallery and education space, and creative a viewing platform atop the Norman tower. It will reopen in early 2020.

The castle was occupied by local families before becoming the vicarage and then being purchased in 1961 by Richard Booth, the self-styled ‘King of Hay’, with a vision to put Hay on the map as a hub for second-hand books after the railway closed and the town went into decline.

He shipped books from closed libraries across America, supplying entrepreneurs with specialist titles and turning the castle itself into a bookshop; shipping containers could only get as far as the car park so the books had to be taken up the steep embankment by wheelbarrow.

Hay’s bookshops, for which the town is famous, are still many and varied

There are fewer bookshops in Hay than there once were but those that remain are well worth browsing: Hay Cinema Bookshop holds an astounding 200,000 titles, Richard Booth’s original bookshop on Lion Street has morphed into an arts centre with a tiny cinema and a programme of talks, while The Poetry Bookshop has one of the best window displays in town.

It is pubs, cafes and restaurants that are now rivalling the bookshops for custom, with good coffee and excellent ice cream in Shepherd’s Ice Cream Parlour opposite the castle, casual lunches including huge slabs of quiche at Oscar’s Bistro, and the creeper-covered exterior of the Blue Boar hinting at the quaintness of the panelled interior (along with deceptively strong pints of Dunkerton’s Cider, made just up the road in Leominster).

The Blue Boar is a spectacular place to sink a pint in the autumn

Aside from buying food from the Farmers’ Market on a Thursday, which has been going for an impressive 700 years, you can’t eat fresher than the restaurant at The Globe at Hay.

Found a short wander downhill from the main streets, this exciting arts and events space has a restaurant attached, now being run by Billy Trigg, founding member of Jamaica Street Stores in Stokes Croft and previously head chef at The Ethicurean.

Lunch at The Globe is cooked by Jamaica Street Stores founder Billy Trigg

The simple lunch menu of soup and sandwiches (£10) belies the flawless execution, with exciting flavour combinations, colourful salads and seasonal ingredients sourced locally. The friendly service and forward-facing outlook at The Globe exemplifies all that is good about this little Welsh town in the hills.

Plan your trip to Hay-on-Wye by visiting www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/tourism