Kate Bliss, a regular face on BBC antiques programmes and an independent jewellery and fine art valuer is hosting a free ‘drop-in’ Valuation Day for jewellery and silver as well as other antiques and contemporary fine art.
Have you recently inherited items you know nothing about? Do you have jewellery you never wear? Kate offers a unique opportunity to find out more about your valuables including their potential value.
A Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, Kate has over 20 years experience valuing single items to unique collections and whole house contents. Whether it’s the right time to realise some assets or simply de-clutter, Kate will provide you with a verbal consultation and arrange items for sale if suitable.
Drop-in for a free valuation in the Clore Learning Space 10am to 4pm, Thursday 17th July
Why not come along and dance to Wuthering Heights on Sunday 20th on the Castle lawn?
All you need to do is turn up on the day - and if you wear red - all the better!
This is part of an international event - The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever.
We (along with thousand of other Kate Bush mad dancers all round the world) will be performing to Wuthering Heights.
Wear red.
The steps are simple, NO dance experience required. Just a love of Kate. If you want to try it at home:
Learn Wuthering Heights Dance
Print Club is run by our resident printmaker - Aidan Saunders - AKA Prints of Hay.
Print Club costs £6 per session - Some materials will be provided and there will be access to the printing press when accompanied by Aidan.
This club will develop according to the needs and requirements of the members of the group - so why not come along and become a part of Print Club.
DONATIONS FOR MATERIALS ARE MUCH APPRECIATED - WE HAVE A DONATION BOX
Get ready for a roar-some and jaw-some day of creativity at Hay Castle! Perfect for children and families. This hands-on session invites young artists to sculpt their favourite prehistoric creatures and ocean predators using fun papier-mâché techniques.
Guided by friendly workshop leaders, participants will learn how to build, shape, and decorate their own dinosaurs and sharks—whether it’s a scary spinosaurus or a sleek great white. The workshop encourages imagination, artistic exploration, and a splash of science, all within the inspiring setting of Hay Castle.
No experience is needed, and all materials are provided. Spaces are limited and booking is essential. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Dive into creativity and unleash your inner paleontologist and marine biologist!
The Shows
As well as visitor engagement and games, as part of our Knights and Castles event days we provide several 30 minute shows throughout each day. Each show takes the audience through the story of the life of the Knight and are designed to get the audience involved and feel like they are part of the story.
The Games
For many visitors it is the games that we provide that are the highlight. Our games are all Medieval games that transport players back in time. We fill our Games Arena with many different games, that are relevant to the period, that visitors can play at their leisure and return as much as they want.
Members of Hay Letterpress Guild will be in the Great Hall printing your name beneath a regal crown. They will make letterpress prints, typeset and printed to order, using an iconic Adana tabletop press. Come and see what can be done without the use of electricity!
There will be a charge if you want to print your name but it is free to come and watch and ask questions - we will be in the Great Hall.
Hay Letterpress Guild are Sarah Lane, Graeme Hobbs and Francesca Kay.
Do you remember what year Queen recorded ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’? Do you know where they recorded the biggest song in 1970s British rock history? Join Tiffany Murray and Owen Sheers for an evening of ‘Rock Stars at the Castle’, where we’ll talk Tiffany’s memoir, My Family and Other Rock Stars, listen to the music from the book, and have our very own rock n’ roll quiz (with prizes!) A fun evening for all.
“It's the late 1970s and Tiff lives with her mum, Joan, at Rockfield, the iconic recording studios. This place of legend, where some of the most famous rock albums of all time were recorded, is the background to a freewheeling, ever-changing whirlwind of a childhood. Tiff's days are spent running around the farm, making friends with local wildlife and helping out with the endless array of dishes her mum creates to keep the bands fed. She's looking for a dog, she's looking for a father; but the one constant throughout is her and Joan, building an unconventional family in the most unlikely of locations.
My Family and Other Rock Stars is Tiff's remarkable, truly unique story of growing up in a rural idyll, of Cordon Bleu cookery and of a childhood where the chances of bumping into Freddie Mercury playing piano, or a group of Hell's Angels turning up to record for Lemmy, or even the hope of David Bowie appearing, were as normal as hopscotch and homework.”
Tiffany Murray's writing has appeared in Granta, the Guardian, the Telegraph, Sunday Times Style, GQ, Independent on Sunday and featured on BBC Radio 4. Her novels, Diamond Star Halo, Happy Accidents and Sugar Hall, have variously been shortlisted for the Wodehouse Bollinger Prize and received the Roger Deakin Award for nature writing. Tiffany has been a Hay Festival Fiction Fellow, a Fulbright scholar, and a Senior Lecturer, and she currently lives in a forest. My Family and Other Rock Stars is her first memoir. She has adapted it for a TV series.
Join us for a relaxed morning walk that weaves through the stunning landscape surrounding Hay-on-Wye—a town steeped in history and perched right on the border between England and Wales. Starting and finishing at Hay Castle, this gentle-paced guided walk takes in riverside footpaths, parts of the famous Offa’s Dyke trail, and the tranquil Dulas Brook, which marks the national border.
We’ll visit the peaceful Cusop Church, the final resting place of Richard Booth—‘The King of Hay’—whose eccentric legacy lives on in a fascinating exhibition inside the castle. After our walk, we’ll return to the castle for tea or coffee and enjoy an exclusive 30-minute ‘Director’s Tour’ led by Castle Director Tom True.
Whether you’re local and want to rediscover the countryside on your doorstep, or a visitor keen to understand Hay’s unique history and setting, this walk is a perfect way to connect with the land, the past, and others.…
Step out from the gates of Hay Castle and into the ancient landscape that surrounds it. This easy morning ramble takes you on a loop through peaceful meadows, leafy lanes, and historic border paths with views of the Black Mountains. Follow sections of Offa’s Dyke and the Dulas Brook—the natural divide between England and Wales—as we uncover the castle’s wider story in the landscape.
FOLK HORROR STORIES
Ancient folklore meets modern anxiety...Dive into the eerie and unsettling world of Folk Horror. Contemporary authors and film-makers draw on the archiac folk and fairytales of our ancestors to reveal another, more precarious relationship with our environment -in which we are no longer in charge... Expect shapeshifters, foolhardy pacts and unquiet graves. Don't expect happily ever after! 16+
Daniel Morden is a Welsh storyteller in the oral tradition. Morden retells traditional stories from various cultures, in particular the Celtic and the ancient Greek. He has performed all over the world, in schools and theatres, at festivals and on the radio. He is also an award-winning author of such books as DARK TALES FROM THE WOODS. In 2017 he was awarded the Hay Festival Medal for Drama.
'To experience Daniel Morden in full flight is an amazing thing. He combines the skills of the Troubadour, the actor, the bard, the standup comedian and the preacher in the pulpit. One of the UK’s greatest storytellers.'
Ian Macmillan, Radio 3
Following the critical acclaim of their debut album Source of the Severn, the Will Barnes Quartet returns with Outside the Light—a bold and expressive new chapter in their artistic journey. This second album deepens the group’s exploration of the interplay between jazz improvisation and the evocative landscapes of Mid Wales and the Welsh Marches. Through a collection of original compositions, the album weaves lyrical beauty with intricate rhythmic interplay.