Dylan Thomas Boathouse

When he first came to Laugharne in 1938 Dylan Thomas wrote that he simply, ‘got off the bus and forgot to get back on’.

The next five months he spent in the town were to be some of the happiest and most productive of his life. At Sea View in Laugharne, he wrote the acclaimed autobiographical collection of poems and prose, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.’

His long affinity with Laugharne led him to move to the Boathouse, perched on the esturary, in 1949. Here he wrote the hugely successful, ‘Under Milk Wood’ the play for voices based on the town of Laugharne. Commissions began to flow in and Thomas made a number of tours of North America, however he couldn’t cope with the success and drank himself to an early grave. He died in New York in 1953 just 39 years old.

The Boathouse was opened as a memorial to Wales ’ favourite literary son in 1975, There is an extensive exhibition on his life and works and each room decorated as it would have looked when he lived their in the 1940s, including his writing shed, equipped with a bottle of beer and scrumpled up pieces of scrap paper. But best of all are the views of the landscape and the atmosphere that formed the world he wrote about.

Nearby in St Martin’s Church, Dylan Thomas is buried with his wife Caitlin, his grave marked by a simple but striking white cross