Laugharne Castle

Swansea, The Gower & Carmarthenshire


Built in the 13th century, picturesque Laugharne Castle was converted into a mansion in the 16th century for John Perrot, thought to be the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. It was landscaped with its current lawns and gardens in Victorian times.

The adjoining Castle House was leased in 1934 by Richard Hughes, author of A High Wind in Jamaica. It was Hughes who first invited Dylan Thomas to Laugharne. Thomas stayed with Hughes at Castle House and wrote some of his short-story collection, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, in the little gazebo looking out over the estuary.