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

[nuitdesetoiles]

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

There are a couple of underground shopping centres in Canary Wharf, in the basements of two of the huge towers. I hate those places, I feel the sheer size and weight of the buildings on top of me and the whole set-up feels oppressive and like an exhibit rather than real shops, if you know what I mean.

I have a similar reaction inside Westfield in west London. Five minutes in there and I feel profoundly depressed all day, sometimes for two days.

@lottielimejuice - you'd be right about the Camelot Hotel. Have a nosy on TripAdvisor for their reviews. I've never stayed there but I researched for a potential stay and vowed to stay far away!

I visited Vienna many years ago and felt it had an oppressive, threatening atmosphere. I felt uncomfortable all weekend. I mentioned to DH on the flight back and he had felt the same.

I also dislike going into rooms with open curtains and the light on. I half expect to see something in the blackness. Strangely I am quite happy to switch off the light then walk in the dark room to draw the curtains! Illogical I know!

Interesting fact, Savernake Forest has been owned by the same family for a thousand years.

@wildrosie you're not talking about Cuerden Hall are you?
I used to work for a care agency and was sent there a few times, it was the strangest place I've ever been to, it just didn't feel real at all. It had such a strange atmosphere and I really couldn't settle. It's been sold now I believe.

Ventriloquists seriously give me the creeps ever since I was a child.

The Queen Mary cruise ship moored in Long Beach, California. The 3rd Class swimming pool area felt so creepy and I couldn’t wait for the tour guide to finish talking so I could get out of there fast. Nowhere else on the ship felt like that.

As a child Savernake Forest was often our Sunday afternoon walk. I've also camped there.

[quote PompomDahlia]@RhubarbTea was this Ruskin or Burgess park?[/quote]
@PompomDahlia I'm not sure as I was very small when we lived there so didn't know the name, am just going on what I was told later by my mum

[quote EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide]@wildrosie you're not talking about Cuerden Hall are you?
I used to work for a care agency and was sent there a few times, it was the strangest place I've ever been to, it just didn't feel real at all. It had such a strange atmosphere and I really couldn't settle. It's been sold now I believe. [/quote]
No. The place I mean is in West Yorkshire but I'd prefer not to name it.

One I'd forgotten; think it was the mention of West Yorkshire that made me think of it. Cemeteries in general are peaceful places. But the one in front of the Bronte Parsonage - even though it's in the middle of a tourist trap and very busy - is as creepy as sin.

A few themes are emerging..
Dark, enclosed, underground type spaces (caves, cellars, dense forests)
Things that seem folorn and forgotten like the beach huts, abandoned places seaside resorts
Places that seem artificial or have a sense of unrealness to them, Glastonbury, portmerion, St Ives... And things like the ventriloquist dummies.

I wonder what it is about our collective psychology that unsettles us like this, maybe someone has some answers...

@MarieIVanArkleStinks I'm surprised you say that about Castle Howard - it always feels oddly homely to me. Have you ever been to Nunnington Hall or Newburgh Priory? If I were a superstitious type, they would both creep me out but I do find them fascinating, especially the weird Cromwell tomb in the attic at Newburgh. Also Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster has a very eccentric vibe - I was bitten on the face by a flea there when I was leaning over a particularly mouldy-looking bit of curtain!

Up in the north of Scotland there's a place called a Clootie Well, I think there's actually a few but it's a specific one I'm thinking of, where legend says that if you dip a rag into the well water and then hang it on a tree you will be cured of illness as the rag rots away. The place totally freaks me out and I've only driven past it, there's no way I could bring myself to park up and get out of the car like other people do.

NeutralJanet that reminds me of Mother Shipton's Cave en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Shipton%27s_Cave which has teddies etc. all petrifying from the water like stalagtites. It was very weird.

@Toriathebadger

Yes, snake pass. I know there have been lots of crashes and there are signs up warning of this. I think it's because it's so bleak as well, I worry about what would happen if I broke down. I really don't like driving in there and avoid it if I can find another route.

I had to drive through Savernake Forest a couple of years ago, and was SO excited about it, having read the stories on MN. Felt nothing. Nada. I was so disappointed! I would have loved to get out of the car and go for a walk, but there wasn’t time.

We used to live in a big Victorian house that had a spare bedroom at the back of the house, away from the other bedrooms along a dark corridor. I think it was probably servants quarters originally. A couple of friends were independently freaked out by this room, and refused to stay in it as they found it creepy. It never bothered me; in fact I preferred it to the master bedroom because it was quieter (master bedroom was at the front of the house). I used to go and nap there during the day when dd was a baby, while Dh looked after her to give me a break. I always found it really peaceful and calming in there.

It had a lovely four poster bed in there that we were storing for a friend while she worked overseas; that probably contributed to the creepiness that my more sensitive friends experienced, but I was gutted when she returned to the U.K. and reclaimed it!

@WildRosie

Sallycinnamon. I couldn't say for certain but it's possible. Why do you ask ? Does the story sound familiar ?

It does sound familiar cos I then googled the farm and went for coffee 😊 didn't get any bad vibes tho. Is it on the edge of a large northern city near an airport?

Glastonbury [town]. I don't live too far away and have been there once, never again. Couldn't wait to get away from there and the atmosphere.

Wells Cathedral, a part of it felt oppressive and just bad.

Tintern Abbey, Wye Valley. Couldn't get out of the scullery/kitchen area fast enough.

A quad at Oxford University. Just stood looking in, there was no way I was going into it. Something had happened there, I felt.

Portmeiron was just weird and felt menacing.

The dining room in a bungalow at Widemouth Bay, nr Bude. Horrible feeling in that room, went in once and didn't again. An odd thing happened in that place...my friend heard me call her name when I was in the conservatory reading and she was inside. I hadn't said a word.

A hotel in Torquay. After a disturbed night when something was pulling at my bedclothes and holding me down...I eventually got into bed with a [very bemused] friend and stayed there all night. In the morning the owners proudly told us about their resident ghosts and loved to hear the stories from visitors! We checked out.

Also weirded out by Stephen Fry and Bill Bailey as mentioned...Jimmy Carr is very odd, as is Kaye Adams.

[quote PeachesBright]@stuffedforchristmas

OMG! I completely get the brown eyes thing. Freaks me out! It's not all shades of brown eyes.. hazel are fine, but it's those sort of beady dead looking brown eyes. It's usually emphasized if the person is fair skinned and fair/red haired.

Mia Wasikowska is a perfect example (photos attached)[/quote]
I have very pale skin, dark hair, lashes and brows and grey/very light green eyes, which, in certain lights, look almost silvery.

An ex did once mention, while dumping me, that this freaked him out a bit.

Meh, it is what it is.

Not me but my five year old has never entered a certain room in Strangers Hall, Norwich. We have been several times over the years as we have always had yearly museum passes yet he has never set foot in the Walnut Room but doesn't explain why.
There are other rooms in the hall which I feel are creepy (for obvious reasons such as the cellar being dark etc) but don't bother him.
It will be interesting as he gets older to see if the room continues to upset him, when he was a baby he would scream when carried in there.

www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/calshot-castle/

I went around this with my Dad. He had marched on ahead and just before I climbed to where he was I felt myself bend forwards/being bent forwards but no force. Felt no one but could not stop myself. Really strange.

Also walking past small woodlands when thee is a lull in the traffic, particularly around 6 at night (yes I know some places are busy). It seems weird. Oh and walking past or near pylons and monkey trees.

There is a bit in Standish wood on the Cotswolds way that filled me with terror. No reason. It was a nice day, but I got a seriously horrible feeling and couldn't get out of there fast enough. Husband thought I was nuts.

And I hate going up a straight flight of stairs in the dark, I always think something is going to grab my ankles.

Just remembered another place... Littlecote House... Before it was a hotel we went on a school trip there! Creepy as hell!!

When I was a kid I visited wookey hole the caves where fine but the inside museum part gave me the creeps

Just felt like it went on forever and I was never going to leave 😬
Definitely a strange feeling that I haven't had since

Ham House has a couple of rooms that are terrifying. There is also a square in Venice that I will try and avoid waking through.