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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for your experiences with Bath/strange atmospheres

543 replies

AliceInBlunderland13 · 18/02/2020 13:11

Semi-regular poster but I’ve name changed for this as the details could be quite outing. Also not really an AIBU but posting for traffic and all that…
There have been two periods in my life when I have lived and/or worked in the city of Bath, Somerset and I’ve experienced problems with my mental health on both occasions. The first was right after I finished by undergraduate degree in London and I moved to Bath to do a Masters at the university. I started in the October and by Christmas I was experiencing terrible panic attacks and depression. I did manage to complete the course but as soon as I finished I ended the tenancy on my flat early and moved back home. I then worked in my home town for a few years, during which time I had no problems with my mental health. Then I decided to do a PhD and took a position again at the uni in Bath. This time I didn’t move there but instead moved to a nearby town and commuted in. Yet again within a couple of months of being there I began experiencing daily panic attacks, terrible anxiety and feelings of dissociation, and depression. I tried to stick it out (had counselling, on meds etc) but I still felt utterly miserable so I recently quit the course and found a new job in another town.
Even after having counselling, I’ve never truly got to the bottom of what triggers these episodes. Logically, it could be stress related as both a Masters and a PhD are obviously a lot of work but then I dealt with the stresses of my undergraduate course just fine, and the job I had between my Masters and PhD was high-stress and I loved it – in fact I used to think I worked best with a bit of pressure.
Then the other day, I was reading an old thread on here (bored while I wait to start my new job Grin ) about places people found creepy. Several people mentioned that they didn’t like Bath or that it had an odd atmosphere – I think one poster described it as ‘melancholy’. Now normally I’m very rational and logical (except when the anxiety takes over Confused ) and wouldn’t give it a second thought, but I couldn’t help wondering if anyone has any experience of feeling anxious/down in a particular place, or if anyone else has felt this ‘atmosphere’ in Bath? I know some will say it’s a load of pish but I guess I’m just interested in other people’s experiences really…

OP posts:
Verbena87 · 19/02/2020 21:57

Teacup was it the big one with some really ancient carvings and font? So interesting to both feel strongly but so differently. (I’m not Christian or religious at all either and I wonder if that’s a factor. It does feel really, really old and a bit pagan somehow to me and I guess that might be unsettling)

Skyejuly · 19/02/2020 21:57

I loved st kinda. Amazing place.

Hated Oban.

Agree about Hastings. Very strange feeling.

lidoshuffle · 19/02/2020 22:00

The most miserable place I've ever visited was Castle Drogo (and usually love Lutyens). Horrible feel to it, but it wasn't a 'spooky' feel to the building itself, it was a larger thing. My sensible friend hated it too.

Funny, it's half way between Plymouth and Exeter, both mentioned here. I think it's in high radon country but the map is frozen, we must have worn it out!

Smellbellina · 19/02/2020 22:08

I live in a higher radon area and love it, but North Wales makes me feel desperate to escape. Turns out it’s where my dads family originated from so I like to think there is something a bit woo about it.

Someone mentioned Malvern before, I lived in Malvern years ago and it did get me down, I always think it’s being in the shadow of the hill, it’s over bearing and sooooo cold!

BestOfTimesBlurstOfTimes · 19/02/2020 22:13

I really like Bath, and have never felt any weird vibes there. I also like Wells, and have never got any weird vibes off Stonehenge (in fact, I felt incredibly peaceful walking along to see it last time we were there). Glastonbury, yes, definitely an odd vibe there, but the place that really gave me the heebie-jeebies was Faversham in Kent. Nope. I just shuddered thinking about it. Not somewhere I’d be happy to see again.

EduCated · 19/02/2020 22:23

Blimey, it’s not just me! I like Bath, I’ve had nice weekends there, but there’s something about it. Melancholy is a good word for it.

I put it down to the high level of tourism. Buildings feel empty beyond their facades, like there’s a veneer of loveliness and busyness but it’s ultimately empty.

Lillyhatesjaz · 19/02/2020 23:20

I love the South West especially Exmoor which is beautiful and not as bleak as Dartmoor. I like Cornwall but some of the ex-mining towns like St Austell have that about to kick off vibe caused by very drunk men walking around in the middle of the day.
I think Glastonbury is horrible because it feels so fake. Nasty scary people pretending to have some special spiritually when really they are preying on the vulnerable, obviously not everyone is fake but a lot are.
I like Avebury I once walked around the stones in the middle of the night and snuck up silbury hill in the dark which felt very freeing, but I don't like going near the barrows. I don't like cemeterys either

UYScuti · 19/02/2020 23:26

A friend who I used to work with, she said that when she went to historic places she could hear and see people from the past, she wasn't a bullshiting type of person she was straight as a die kind of a person so I'm inclined to believe her, I mean I don't think she was deliberately lying to me🤷🏼‍♀️

RalphWiggumsWedgie · 19/02/2020 23:31

Great thread. I hate the whole county of Wiltshire. Worked in three different places there and every time it ended badly. One place - Devizes - God that felt bad. Like it wanted me dead. Couldn’t wait to get out!
I got engaged and disengaged in Bath in the space of 24 hours. Bath sucks as well 😂

PimmswithMims · 19/02/2020 23:55

@AliceInBlunderland13 Great thread and you've encouraged me onto Mumsnet after a year of lurking! Have you considered the effect of being on the uni campus up on that hill? I did one year of a PhD commuting over from Bristol. The place felt desolate and cold and is several degrees cooler than in town. I felt quite lost there (despite being a big girl in my 40s at the time) and also experienced anxiety. I was very unhappy and eventually left. I love Bath for a day-trip but have no desire to ever go back up that hill.

Original poster
AliceInBlunderland13 · 20/02/2020 06:47

@PimmswithMims thank you and welcome! I'm glad I'm not the only one that ended up leaving, though I'm sorry you experienced anxiety too. I'd not really considered the effect of being on the hill but you're right it does seem isolated up there - I used to like the fact that the campus is like it's own self-contained community (compared to my undergrad where the university buildings and accommodation were dotted around quite a large area of London) but it does make you feel cut off. And I certainly know about the extremes of weather up there! Maybe that's it, or at least part of the problem!

OP posts:
Greenpolkadot · 20/02/2020 07:19

I felt like this in Leicester. It gave me a feeling like I was being in damp cold black earth.
We were staying at a hotel outside Leicester and several people who lived in the area said that they also hated the city but couldn't say why.

londonrach · 20/02/2020 07:23

I grow up near by and kinda agree. Has a strange feeling. Its slightly disjointed too. I prefer it out of the town at the crescent as in the town feels i dont know...close.. street and glastonbury the same.

Skyejuly · 20/02/2020 08:13

Some places just make me want to go home for almost no reason other than a feeling.
I felt like this is scratby too.
Redruth
Reading

Original poster
AliceInBlunderland13 · 20/02/2020 09:49

I think @DrCoconut has cracked it! Any town that doesn't serve decent fish and chips must be a bad'un GrinGrin

OP posts:
CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate · 20/02/2020 10:03

You say that Alice but the best fish and chips I've ever had was in Hastings from a little hut by the sea, and Hastings has come up a lot for it's murderous ambienceGrin.

That said a lack of decent fish and chips certainly won't endear me to any place and is somewhat ominous I agree.

Teacup34 · 20/02/2020 10:07

Yes it was the big old one verbena I don't remember the carvings or font but it was a while ago and I just wanted to get out of there lol. I'm a Christian so usually feel at peace in church not this one though. Now u mention it it did have a bit of a pagan feel to it maybe that's why it felt off to me.

MulticolourMophead · 20/02/2020 11:26

I live near Leicester and it feels fine to me. But both Leicester and my town have low to zero levels of radon, so I'm going from like to like. Interestingly, while my town has little radon, the high levels can be found just outside of town, 3-4 miles away.

I also compared a map of ley lines to the radon map and it looks like there may be some correspondence there.

SirChing · 20/02/2020 11:40

@Greenpolkadot I lived in Leicester for 7 years and felt exactly the same. Nice enough city but there is something really off about it. I thought that maybe it was just me being a northerner and not "fitting". Back in Leeds, I worked with a lovely lady from London who had also lived in Leicester. Her first words to me "isn't it a weird place?". Truly an odd experience.

PlomBear · 20/02/2020 12:13

I find train stations really strange places. Moorgate and Kings Cross in particular.

pinboard · 20/02/2020 12:39

Rannoch Moor.
Glencoe and Culloden.
Many parts of the Scottish borders.
Creepy as fuck.

pinboard · 20/02/2020 12:41

Bits of Edinburgh, esp Old Town / Cowgate / along Royal Mile closes

OhGoveUckYourself · 20/02/2020 12:42

I live near Leicester and have done for years. I can't say I have ever felt any sort of atmosphere there. Helston in Cornwall never feels very welcoming.

ManonBlackbeak · 20/02/2020 12:59

Look into the histories of Kings Cross and Moorgate PlomBear both have had disasters happen there in which many people died. Also when building the tube lots of plague pits were discovered there and cemeteries and church crypts moved etc.

PlomBear · 20/02/2020 13:18

I knew of the disasters previously. I’ve started to read more into the Moorgate crash and I find it chilling. There’s a book on amazon and some television documentaries on YouTube. I used to go into Moorgate every week day when I worked in the City. The plague pits are also terrifying!