To feel weird in Glastonbury

[Wellsbells]

I moved about a half hour’s drive from Glastonbury a few years ago but have only visited the town itself once. I hated it. It just felt uncomfortable and a bit sinister, and I couldn’t wait to leave. I’ve not felt that way anywhere else, I mean there are places I like more than others of course but this was just a really strong sense of “I want to get out of here”. Would be interested to know if anyone else has felt this way? Or about anywhere else?

Yes to Dartington. Had to go there once for work and it was as if all my confidence was suddenly gone, despite being competent and well prepared I was a blubbering bag of nerves and could barely do the job. Just the most menacing place.

Matlock Bath is indeed weird. As are many other places in that area - Crich, Worksworth, Buxton. All rather oppressively bleak/weird places.

I also find lots of rural boarding schools creepy. Many are just in bleak areas with there being very little for mike's around apart from the school. It always seems strange/depressing that people send their children away to such isolated oppressive places. There's quite a lot in Somerset and Derbyshire that give me the creeps.

Wells is very nice, to answer a pp. It has a very open and relaxed vibe and there's lots of green space and warm-looking architecture. The cathedral is one of the most beautiful in England imo. I always think it's very odd that there's no railway station, though - the nearest is Bristol.

I was going to add Bodmin to the mix too.

I think there is an energy there for sure. I felt like it was magic!

I really like Bath though, have been a few times.

Well Boscastle has the witchcraft museum in it. And lots of witches, I have friends there too and go to events a fair bit. Glastonbury you would think would be full of witches covens but it isn't, there hasn't been a decent coven there in forever, but there are plenty of whack jobs doing quite strange therapies for an absurd cost and retired witches who don't speak to other people much.
It's an absolute magnet for hippies and people who've lost their marbles on drugs but no "real" spirituality.

@Andante57

I feel like this in Matlock Bath. Very strange place.

Yes... I felt uncomfortable there, too.

I didn't like Glastonbury as the range of shops there was too intimidating. Had a pub lunch there and we couldn't wait to leave no idea why.
Didn't like Bath either.

@Elwynne Exeter is way too boring for the devil There's definitely some evil there if you are trying to drive out in the rush hour.

I was disappointed in Glastonbury. I was expecting somewhere pretty and peaceful and it was full of shops selling crystal wands for crying out loud.

If you want a place to give you the creeps, there's a place near Penzance called Madron and a couple of miles outside it is a 'well', a natural spring, where people hang rags from the trees. I've only been once and it was seriously nasty, the air of gloom and decay was awful.

I swear I read about this before on a thread and someone suggested the area has high emissions of ground gases that are blamed?

I love Bath, but loathed it the first time that I visited it as it felt claustrophobic and lots of the surrounding terraces were quite from (the bath stone had darkened over the years). I visited alone on a grey February day. I really like it now. Same with Wells. I think that with some of these places the weather has a lot to do with it. Apart from Glastonbury as there are even more weirdos in the summer.

I got married in Glastonbury, had the wedding reception in Wells and went to Glastonbury Festival for our honeymoon in 2009. Love the place, although I'm not really woo - just enjoy people watching and love walking up to the Tor. My parents visited and said it felt a bit weird for them. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

Has anyone been to a small shopping centre called Masson Mills just outside Matlock? Fuck me.... awful place for the woo side of things.

I've been there once. Didn't like it at all. We had a cup of tea and left!

[quote chloworm]@LokiDoki75 There is actually a really old and quite well-known oak tree near St Peter's Church... I can well imagine the shop woman. Bit yokel. But most people are very nice![/quote]
@chloworm I wonder if he got his inspiration there? The other “shrine” made me chuckle, the car park on top of the hill. It was the only spot in the place that you could get a mobile signal so there were frequent gatherings of all religions there

@thefemaleJoshLyman

Walsingham in Norfolk. One of the weirdest places I've ever been to. Very eerie, felt cold even on warm summer day. It is a place of pilgrimage but didn't feel the love.

Yes. I went a few times as a child and it's got a very strange vibe. My dad was a vicar and really liked the place.

@Hugoslavia

Matlock Bath is indeed weird. As are many other places in that area - Crich, Worksworth, Buxton. All rather oppressively bleak/weird places.

I also find lots of rural boarding schools creepy. Many are just in bleak areas with there being very little for mike's around apart from the school. It always seems strange/depressing that people send their children away to such isolated oppressive places. There's quite a lot in Somerset and Derbyshire that give me the creeps.

I worked in a rural boarding school in my twenties (in Yorkshire, initials QE) and despite it being my dream job, I ended up leaving after eight or nine months because I was clinically depressed. To this day I can't decide if it was the isolation (I didn't drive then, and people weren't exactly keen to offer lifts to places) or my horrible boss. Probably a combination.

I've been to Glastonbury several times and hated it too. Whenever we've been it's been clear that a higher-than-average proportion of people are off their heads one way or another. We parked near the Tor one day and walked up it and tried to be awed by the experience but it was ruined by the stoned old hippy at the top, lecturing us about what a cosmic experience we should be having. Arrived back at the car and found a van had parked just in front of us with its rear door open and we had the lovely sight of three people shooting up and then one of them stumbling out and falling over in the road and throwing up spectacularly.

Love Dartington but I think Totnes and surrounds (including Dartington) has more than its fair share of alternative-type folk. If people flock to a place because other people there share a belief in fairies/ angels/ magic/ homeopathy/ reiki/ whatever then you end up having some weird encounters. When we lived in Wales we were surrounded by old hippies and they are definitely not the peace-and-love people one expects. Never met anyone more selfish, judgemental and venal than an old hippie.

@LokiDoki75 in the 1980s we didn't even have a landline. Literally no way of communicating with the outside world. Still very patchy mobile reception but at least we now have WiFi. The high street was thriving in the 1980s and 1990s but things gradually closed and moved to Wells. Luckily there is now a nice but pricey farmshop and a lovely café/bistro. Plus a cosy pub, the Black Lion. Children love playing in the ford.

@Pukkatea

I swear I read about this before on a thread and someone suggested the area has high emissions of ground gases that are blamed?

Radon gas. www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps

I looked into it a bit after a past thread and there does seem to be a bit of truth to it.

Visited Malvern once and never want to return, it's pretty but got a weird vibe about it.

i’m a terrible old hippy and i hated Glastonbury. the Tor is awesome and the Chalice Gardens are beautiful but i did not like the rest of it at all.

I felt the same in Glastonbury. V creepy place. I don't want to go there again.

I think I'm going to rearrange my "places to visit" list by "places MNers find creepy". Do you think MN will pay me to do a feature? 😂