Things/ places that inexplicably give you the creeps...

[nuitdesetoiles]

Ice cream Vans
Mime artists
Brighton
Glastonbury
(Apologies to residents of the above 2 places)

@Seeline

Any large area of still water - particularly if it is enclosed by trees or hills/valley sides.

I love the sea and rivers, but find the silence of still water very unnerving.

In Northumberland there is a huge piece of still water at Keilder water. A village was flooded to make it. It's creepy as... Dd and I once got lost in the Forest as we were losing the light and could only navigate by keeping to the edge of the water. I nearly had a panic attack. HATED it.

Also, some of the underground / bricked up Closes in Old Town, Edinburgh. Very creepy.

I do believe that buildings can absorb stress / sadness.

@Schonerlebnis
I live right by Chillingham Castle. Went there for the first time about 2 months ago, the day it closed for the winter. YES - bloody odd place.
The owner is Dom Cummings FIL and a caricature of an Upper Class Twit. He came to speak to us (bored, probs, and wanted to show off his Castle) and he was actually quite creepy. The dungeon chamber has some genuine stuff in it and that is very unpleasant. Whole place nasty in every way.

Ah yes the refuge! That's a favourite haunt of mine now, and love the palace theatre... It does have a spooky vibe but some spookiness I love, I think it's when things feel sinister and flat and lifeless it creeps me out. Lots of old theatres have that vibe I find but am very attracted to it..

Yes to Tubular Bells!!! Heard it as a kid so no association with The Exorcist and it completely freaked me out.

@effiehabb

Personally I love the town of Stroud, but I know it creeps a lot of people out. Completely agree about Savernake forest area. Personally, I always got a weird vibe from Exeter and Crediton area. Had a very freaky ghostly experience in a tiny little village nearby called Whitestone as a 12 year old and the whole area makes my blood run cold.

Ha I live in Stroud and honestly the worst things you’ll find here at night are drunks. Worst thing you’ll find in the day are people handing out flyers on the high street trying to convince you that vaccines are evil. Even the overgrown old cemetery isn’t too spooky, and I’m easily spooked.

Total opposite to what this thread is asking but I once (as a teenager) explored a derelict mill just outside of Stroud, and weirdly it was incredibly peaceful and serene despite being the exact kind of place I’d normally find terrifying.

I can't believe anyone is creeped out by Dunstable! :) Or Letchworth, or Baldock. Practically the whole of Herts/Beds/Bucks is too bland and dull to be creepy. Even Milton Keynes.

Actually, parts of the Grand Union Canal around Tring/Berkhamsted are pretty scary in a "rapists hiding in the bushes" kind of way, though that's probably true of remote bits of towpath everywhere.

Agreed re Micky Mouse and his horrible voice. Ditto Michael Jackson, even before the (wholly unsurprising) abuse revelations.

I think Aldeburgh is creepy, with its desolate end of the earth vibe.

Re savernake forest .
Anyone remember the lady who posted in one of the spooky threads about house sitting for a friend - went into the forest at night thinking one of the dogs had got out ? Torch light bounced back from the dark , dog went nuts , and laid down growling. She said something like "Jesus Christ " and a voice gurgled in her ear "he won't help you now " before she fled back to the house , falling over as she went . ? That story still shits me up to this day ....

@WeCameToDance I think we have stayed in the same place. I agree that Glastonbury and the surrounding area feels forced. Almost inauthentic. As if the people there are almost playing a role for tourists, and step into a cupboard at night. So so strange. I felt the same about the cottages too......something inauthentic about the owners. We left a day early. Bleurgh!

Can someone link the thread about the woman with the puppy in Savernake Forest? Searched but can't find it.

I've looked too for the house sitting post and can't find it now . I messaged the lady afterwards- her friend who lives there had never had a bad experience.

Essence of thread was after a few nights she heard banging and thumping from the chicken shed . As soon as she opened the door it stopped . She locked up
And went back to the house . She was dog sitting 3 black labs . One streaked out so she got one of the others on a lead to go into the forest to look for him .
She saw shapes shifting in the darkness and her torch light wouldn't cut through the dark . The dog went nuts and laid down growling. She was scared and said "Jesus Christ !" When something gurgled in her ear l"he won't help you now " and with that she ran blindly with the dog leading the way . She got back to the grounds of the house where she fell grazing her hands and knees before scrambling into the house and locking the door only to see all 3 dogs were there - she had no idea what the black shape that had passed her was that she had assumed was the dog . She sat with her back against the door sobbing until daylight .

Proper bloody freaked me out that one did !

@2Kidsinatrenchcoat my dc go to secondary school in Stroud we live in the area and we love it! We moved from a different area of Gloucestershire and when we told people where we were going we got loads of 'woah, Stroud creeps me out' or claimed to find it 'witchy' probably says more about our old area to be honest

I haven’t read the whole thread yet. But (this is very outing) I used to work at a school built into the old walls. It was so distinctive looking. It felt like you could feel the history. It had also been a workhouse (it had a significant person stay there during that time) it then became a hospital before finally the school. Grief like the type felt when it was a workhouse never leaves the building. Despite the modernism of the school you could still feel it seeping through.

[quote effiehabb]@2Kidsinatrenchcoat my dc go to secondary school in Stroud we live in the area and we love it! We moved from a different area of Gloucestershire and when we told people where we were going we got loads of 'woah, Stroud creeps me out' or claimed to find it 'witchy' probably says more about our old area to be honest [/quote]
I guess I can understand it being seen as ‘witchy’, and I think some people find things like the wassail a bit sinister. I love it though!

Lockerbie... we were on our way home from Loch Lomond and we were hungry and dying for a wee, so we agreed to stop at next junction on the motorway, which happened to be Lockerbie.
Oh my goodness, I have never felt so unwanted and uncomfortable in my life!! People stopped and stared at us, the chip shop was hostile to the point of rudeness, snatched our money and banged our food down, and I just wanted to run away, fast!!
We didn’t bother trying to find toilets, we just got in the car and fled to the motorway!!
Other people have mentioned the same thing happening to them - maybe it was bad feeling left over from the Lockerbie air crash, when the town was swamped with people gawping... but that was 1988 - and we were there in 2014!!
Whatever the reason, I won’t be returning.

I used to work for Waterstones in Manchester and the shop was absolutely fine but whenever I went down in the goods lift to the goods in/storage area I got an overwhelming feeling of oppressive dread, it felt horribly creepy and like I was being watched or followed as soon as I stepped out of the lift, all the way down the corridor until I got to the goods in room. I have no idea what it was. I felt it every time I went down there several times a day for 2 years. I was quite relieved when I left to never have to go down there again.

@nuitdesetoiles

Have you ever done one of Flecky Bennett's ghost tours?

@Dugee no but really mean to! I love staff like that... Will make that an aspiration for 2021. Southern cemetery one of my favourite places!

Had a weird experience driving down a bleak road in the middle of nowhere on the A51 somewhere near Kelsall very late at night, about 18 years ago. I said to my ex husband that it was creepy(he was never ever ‘woo’ at all) and he inexplicably stopped the car, turned all the lights off and just got out. We both stood there frozen, and swore we could hear and sense the sounds of a hoard of people all around us. We left extremely rapidly!

A 1980s-ish housing estate in the town where I live. It’s just a short walk from my house, and once DH and I were out walking the dogs and he went onto this estate.

My mood immediately plummeted, I felt like I was being watched, I couldn’t relax at all. I felt really sad and just wanted to get out of there.

I haven’t been back since. I’m convinced it’s built on some kind of burial ground or something. There have been a few Roman sites etc found nearby, so it’s not completely impossible.

I have chills reading this

@LadyFlumpalot yes thats the one. It makes a lot of sense after watching it. I think its on YouTube

Eldon Gaden shopping mall in Newcastle. It is an extension of the thriving Eldon Square shopping complex. I always get the creeps just walking past the place.No business has survived long in there either it is full of empty shops.A very cold spooky place.
Also part of John Lewis restaurant nearby it.Not the main area but the bit on the left as you go in.Even if that is the only bit with empty seats I will not go in.Avery spooky creepy feeling it gives me.
And I am sorry to offend anyone, but the actress who plays Honey on Eastenders.There is something about her eyes that completly creeps me out.

Love this thread!
Agree about down-at-heel seaside towns, especially where the paint is peeling on the drainpipes & metal railings. Went to Herne Bay in Kent in the 1980s & the end of the pier was sticking up out of the sea, but the main bit had been blown up in the war. That rusting end of the pier really freaked me out.

Someone mentioned Ilkeston on Derbyshire/Notts border. There are a couple of other old mining villages in that area that give me the creeps on driving through. They feel utterly depressing & weird. I have a colleague who feels the same about them.

Sark in The Channel Islands also bothered me. We spent one afternoon there, & I couldn't wait to leave.

I am also creeped out by pipework that isn't boxed in, & old-fashioned toilets with the cistern above the toilet. What if it crashes down or leaks on top of me? I had a terrible fear of public toilets as a child.

I also feel very unnerved by the Cravendale advert that featured a lot of cats. I love cats, but not when they hang out in gangs. I rented a place opposite a house where about a dozen of the local moggies used to congregate on the roof, hunch up & stare at us eating breakfast. Very bad vibes.

Melton Mowbray. Full of strange people, not somewhere I'd want to visit again.

This thread is freaking me out...

I've never been freaked out by a place but things that give me the creeps:

• Clumps of hair, like on a hairbrush. I hate having to remove it even when it's my own hair and quite often make my husband do it. Makes me feel all funny.
• Cold gravy left on your plate after eating, makes me shudder when I touch it by accident.
• Wet food in the sink plughole. Bleurgh!
• Open cupboards or wardrobes, especially in the bedroom. I always think there's something lurking in there.
• Mirrors. I expect to see something moving when there shouldn't be.
• That weird way of moving that is in creepy films now, I first remember seeing it in The Ring. It's a weird jerky type of movement. Even when the film isn't that scary it freaks me out.
• Windows without curtains at night

Oh, and I completely agree with the person who says flickering lights.