Dylan Thomas's house in Laugharne where he wrote his great work, Under Milkwood.
The seaside village was an isolated English speaking town in an area of Welsh speaking countryside when Dylan first lived here with Caitlin, his wife, in their Sea View home. After soon falling pregnant, Dylan worked on his poetry but debts and uncertainty and the need for some stability once their son was born meant the family moved on in 1940.
In 1949 the family returned. At his creative height Dylan Thomas needed to return to Laugharne. He spent his time writing on a cliff-top shed and it was there that he wrote Under Milkwood (a return to his Welsh landscape and his roots and a celebration of simple domestic life.) His life though was ravaged at times though, Caitlin's too. Melancholy and mental illness were always close by for Dylan Thomas but he had this great creativeness which later gave him recognition as being one of the worlds greatest poets ("Rage, rage against the dying of the Light", he wrote of his father at his deathbed.)
In less than a year Dylan died too. In a New York hotel. 1953, aged 39. And It's fitting that Laugharne was to become his final resting place. After his death in New York his body was returned to Wales and buried in the grounds of St Martin's Church in Laugharne - his grave is marked with a simple white cross, and Caitlin, who died in 1994, was buried beside him. His home is now a tourist attraction with original furnishings and interpretations of his works. There's more to Laugharne, it's castle and coastline but it's mainly famous for Dylan Thomas.
To find and stumble onto these places is one of the joys of cycling. If you can, visit Thomas's legacy here, or if not, keep cycling on and through the unassuming Laugharne village into more Pembrokeshire country lanes.