In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins buys a house called Crickhollow as cover for his secret departure from the Shire. Fatty Bolger stays behind to keep up appearances, and Merry and Pippin are part of the plan.
In a letter from 1966, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote that Crickhollow was meant to resemble Crickhowell, a small town in Wales. He wrote it to a reader who had asked about place names. It is not fully clear what he meant.
Crickhowell sits on the River Usk in Powys, inside Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, which was called the Brecon Beacons until 2023. About 2,000 people live there. The name comes from Crug Hywel, which means “Hywel’s mound,” and it may refer to the castle mound in the middle of town.
A Norman castle stood on that mound. Its ruins are known as Crickhowell Castle or Alisby’s Castle. The town was laid out around it, with streets in a regular pattern. The castle and the bridge are both shown on maps from 1587.
The bridge over the Usk is the town’s best-known landmark. It was rebuilt in stone more than 300 years ago. Later, it was widened on the upstream side because it was too narrow. Then builders changed one end when a new road was built, and the upstream side lost one arch. That is why the bridge has 12 arches on one side and 13 on the other. The two sides look different because only the upstream side was widened.
It is the longest stone bridge in Wales, and it has Grade I listed status, the highest grade for a historic building. Small spaces above the piers let people on foot step aside from traffic.
In July 2026, a local business owner, Frank Ady, won Tolkien’s letter at a Christie’s auction after a community fundraiser. The letter is meant to be displayed in Crickhowell for local people and visitors to see.