Do you have a place somewhere in the world where you feel "spiritually" at home even if you have no actual connection to it?

[TheKitchenWitch]

That is the most convoluted thread title, apologies.
But I've had this weird feeling in about 3 places in my life, places which I don't actually have any deep connection to - one was a bar/restaurant, one is a park, and one is a famous historic landmark. I feel such a sense of belonging and peace in each of these places, and I can't at all explain what it is.

Does anyone else have this? Is there a name for it?

Yes one place in particular from early childhood visiting family in Shropshire. Used to cry when we left moved here after graduating uni was the best move like coming home. Strange as my actual home was lovely too but it was just this yearning for the place. Very strange really as no direct links in family past or anything.

Portland parish in Jamaica.

I have a few. Wayland's Smithy, the sanctuary at Avebury, and one of the underground passages at Carn Euny ancient village in Cornwall. The latter in particular just blew me away when I went down there - I was just enveloped in a sense of peace and 'rightness' and felt as though I could have just stayed there for ever (possibly emerging every few days for a cream tea from the little cottage/bakery at the end of the lane).

Experienced this once in a very remote area, there are these amazing 5000 year old carvings and I just felt the most incredible sense of peace.

South Wales. Probably because I and my family are from South Yorkshire and up until my generation employment-wise we were coal and steel through and through.

I've sat at the pit head on Christmas Day with a parcel of turkey sandwiches for my grandfather, my father spent all his working life as a British Steel engineer.

All of Orkney but Stromness in particular although there is a single standing stone near Stenness that gives me the creeps. I definitely have Viking ancestry so maybe that’s something to do with it. Also Dublin which I suppose fits the Viking thing. Glasgow has also always felt like home to me.

Glastonbury. Not the festival (never been), but the mystical grounds of the Abbey, the Tor, Chalice Well and the White Spring... I feel like I belong there, yet I'm actually from continental Europe by origin. It must be due to reading the Mists of Avalon at an impressionable age!

Hong Kong, the first time I went I sobbed almost an hour to the airport and most of the flight home on and off

It is my soul home, I go every year now and will be back there again in 5 weeks

Do we know why?

Was something going on with us when we first visited there?

Like being overly stressed/bereavement/depressed? And we needed a holiday and were able to relax?

Maybe thats why I brain connects it with peace?

Assissi.
Vancouver.

Most of these places seem to be by the sea or rivers. I remember feeling all 'could stay here for ages' in Cape St Vincent and Sagres. Anywhere where I could look out at a vast ocean expanse and think of who had gone before.

Yes! Stirling castle. I could go every single day.

Weirdly I also felt so at home when I went to Leeds for a concert. I got a sort of settled and content feeling while walking around. Quite strange really.

Brighton.
Glastonbury.

I instantly felt comfortable in Brighton. Like I’d been a million times. Think I’ve been about ten times now, but it feels like I’ve lives there whenever we go.

I’ve been to Glastonbury twice, and although it’s been stressful getting in, pitching up, queuing for everything, there is nowhere I would rather be.

I just got back from Mexico. I was really nervous about spending time in Mexico City, because I’ve heard so many negative stories about it.

Weirdly, I felt instantly at home. Loved the place, the people, everything, and felt perfectly safe. I could have stayed in Frida Kahlo’s garden forever. Never been so viscerally moved by a physical environment before.

Oh, and North Norfolk

The street I live on. It wasn't within the cordon I had drawn for house hunting, but I happened to pass along it on my way to the tube, and I thought "this is the place", and bought here within the week.

Venice
Lucca
Cannes

Ibiza, no idea why but I feel so at ease there.
Whenever I have been I've stayed at Es Cana and just feel so relaxed and calm when there. Can't go back every year but I can recall my favourite spot on the beach easily so make do with that!

Mallorca is the place where I simply come off the plane and feel instantly relaxed. I don’t know what it is but it’s where I feel totally settled and hapyp

Iona - particularly the abbey but the whole island makes me instantly relax. Even if it’s a lot busier up there these days, I just feel calm once I get on the ferry.

Dungeness.
San Francisco.
Anywhere in Norway / Sweden.
Belgium (it is where I grew up so it really is home although I haven’t lived there since I was 20).
Kantiang Bay on Koh Lanta in Thailand.

A place we used to vacation at every year. From the first moment I set foot there I felt like I had come home. As an adult, I bought a second home here, and now I have moved, initially we were taking a year off and staying here, but I don't expect to ever go back to my old house.

Upper Wharfedale
There is a bend in the road, a bridge over the young River Wharfe and a real sense of peace.

Two places in London give me that feeling, had done for years.. then discovered it's where relatives lived years ago.
Also Hollins Cross in the Peak District...I can breathe properly up there!

St Ives in Cornwall. Feel at home there, though I've lived in London all my life.

Blackmoor Reserve and Velvet Bottom at Charterhouse on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

Brean Down(also in Somerset)

Chalice Well in Glastonbury.

Sand Point Somerset
(I see a recurring theme here lol)