Walking With Dylan Thomas

When we moved to Carmarthenshire almost 11 years ago I was not a poet, I had written poetry and won poetry competitions but I had long forgotten about those as it was whilst I was in school. Before moving to South Wales I had never heard of Dylan Thomas but it didn't take long to learn of the love that the Welsh have for him.

 

This past year I decided to learn more about Dylan by visiting his museum, The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, read his poetry, learn about his story and today we were able to visit his writing shed and see the last place he called home, The Boathouse in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.

I saw the original doors to the writing shed when I visited the Dylan Thomas Centre last year with my daughter. We visited a few museums that day and this one was her favourite. They had fun activities for children which kept my daughter busy whilst I read.

Today we drove through the very pretty town of Laugharne before finding a space in the sea front car park, which is next to the beautiful castle. There are more than 600 castles in Wales so you are likely to come across one in most towns you visit, if not you will definitely see one whilst driving to your destination. 

We took the coastal walk to the Writing Shed from the car park. You go up some very steep steps so be mindful of this if visiting, there are other ways to get there but I am unsure of those paths. There were quite a few people visiting today but you had plenty of time to have a good look inside and read the information board. I absolutely loved getting an insight into this creative mans world, you could imagine him coming along on this walk with you, talking about what inspires him and how much he loves the area. I loved how the Writing Shed was messy, it reminded me of my own little poetry hut in my garden.

We carried on walking past the Boathouse and ended up doing a lovely little 3km walk around the coastal path. Our Teddy was curious at what we were looking at so our son let him have a look over the beautiful views of the Tâf Estuary. 

If you are planning on making a visit to South Wales, UK I highly recommend a day out visiting both the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea and the Writing Shed and boathouse in Laugharne.