Poetry and travel hold equal sway in their power to transport us to new world. As we celebrate the centenary of famous Welsh Poet Dylan Thomas's birth, let's pay a visit to the town Laugharne and the poet's favourite watering hole Browns now a luxury 15-room boutique hotel.
Brown's Hotel was built in 1752; an iconic literary address, the social hub of Laugharne and the favourite watering hole of poet and writer Dylan Thomas, who famously left the bar's phone number as his own.
Brown's has 15 en-suite rooms, home-cooked pub grub, local ales, Penderyn Whisky (check out their new 'Dylan' Icons Of Wales Special Edition single malt),a library and the ‘dartboard’ story. It’s idyllic and most certainly the place to be and be seen especially if you’re a fan of all things literature and whiskey.
Following in Dylan’s footsteps President Carter, Burton & Taylor, Peter O’Toole, Charles and Camilla, Mick Jagger, Pierce Brosnan, Cerys Matthews, Rhys Ifans, Bruce Reynolds, Patti Smith, Elijah Wood, Sir Peter Blake and many others have made their way up the three stone steps to the bar, now wouldn’t you want to be a part of this list, if it’s good enough for them it most certainly will be good enough for you.
As if we haven’t got you sold enough on the place, let’s talk about which room you should check into; Corran Room. Named after Laugharne’s babbling brook, the Corran (or ‘charn’ in the Welsh name for Laugharne – Talacharn), this spacious double room is rich in character with its own entrance hall, a double height ceiling in the bedroom, exposed stonework and pleasant views out to the rear of the hotel to the woodland beyond, and the gardens of historic Victoria Street where the WW1 poet Edward Thomas once lived, talk about being surrounded by lots of sources of inspiration.
Laugharne has an ancient history, quirky customs, the ‘Laugharne Weekend’ literary festivals, a lively nightlife, estuary walks, a magnificent castle, the quirky Tin Shed Museum, the Dylan Thomas Boathouse, cafes and shops... and was once described as ‘...the strangest town in Wales’ by Dylan Thomas.
