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?

@AcornAutumn

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? 😂

I have already written them all down in my diary, though most of them I have already been too and I like most of them. Maybe inmates just weird 😬

Another vote for Penzance, I found it depressing and oppressive. I’m not fond of Cornwall in general.

BlueSussex Yes to Osaka, I also felt dreadful there, almost like my soul was being judged and my whole being scrutinised, felt uncomfortable the (thankfully) short time I was there, like I was unwelcome and shouldn't be there.

Bloody awful place! I can't stand it there, we live not too far away but won't go there ever again.

Matlock in the peak district. Like a Victorian seaside town in the middle of the countryside.

Must be the Ley lines.. i think some people can be very sensitive to the energies. I had a headache and felt very strange when I was in Burley in the New forest. I had no idea it was on a ley line until I googled it later on. I also felt very strange when we went to somerset for the weekend, near cheddar gorge.

@AliceAbsolum

Matlock in the peak district. Like a Victorian seaside town in the middle of the countryside.

I love Matlock but Glasto freaks me right out!

@QuestionableMouse, I think clinical depression is not entirely surprising, given the school you wisely don't name.

[quote WhipMaWhopMa]@QuestionableMouse, I think clinical depression is not entirely surprising, given the school you wisely don't name.[/quote]
Yep 😁

Never had it before and never had it since. I think it was a combination of things but the location of said school really didn't help.

I think Matlock bath (and lots of Derbyshire) have high Radon gas emissions so that might be linked to the comments about Matlock Bath etc

@Wellsbells I felt exactly the same in Glastonbury. For years I had wanted to go and when she surprised me with a weekend there I was thrilled. As soon as we arrived though it felt so oppressive. I can't put my finger on why but wherever we walked I felt trapped. Never experienced anything like it anywhere else. I was so disappointed in myself for feeling this way but I was so happy to leave.

Matlock Bath was designed with Victorian seaside towns in mind and "back in the day" ie Victorian times the middle classes flocked there to "take the waters" etc. Similar to Buxton. Big biker gang scene in Matlock and grim pubs that can make it feel somewhat intimidating!
A lot of places with a weird or oppressive atmosphere have a seedy underbelly often to do with drugs and crime. Ketamine is very popular with new age travelers and crusties and creates an awful empty vibe at any social gathering very prevalent in Glastonbury and other places in the South West. Sorry South West of England dweller but I find a lot of the South West weird and oppressive. I grew up pretty immersed the the free party/rave culture of the 90s but now anything that reminds me of it gives me the heebie jeebies. Glastonbury and Totnes seem to be a hangover from those times, similarly hebden in Yorkshire.

very staid, religious Aunt to Glastonbury

Couldn't think of anything worse, quite frankly...

I like Glastonbury. You have to be open to it though.

I mean the town.

The festival is my idea of hell.

Do enjoy some of the concerts on BBC.
Beyonce.

Toumani Diabate and his son Sidiki. Kora legends from Mali.

@Wellsbells

Does anyone know if there is a non-woo explanation for this? Have these ‘energy lines’ ever been properly detected in any way?

Because it’s full of nutters?

There are 2 places where I felt particularly uneasy. One was Wigtown in Dumfries & Galloway which is known for its bookshops. On the day we visited the town was surrounded by a ring of fog but the town itself was completely fog-free. I found the bookshops quite creepy and I remember one of the shops was actually in someone’s house. I expect I’m misremembering but I seem to recall the front door creaking open and us being ushered in by a very strange person.

The other place is the Secret Wartime Tunnels at Dover Castle. Now, Dover Castle is bloody amazing and well worth a visit but those tunnels as creepy AF. I was fortunate enough to once have a tour of parts of the tunnels not open the public. There is a T.V studio from where the BBC planned to broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack. A (very level-headed) friend of mine is convinced she saw a man dressed in an old fashioned dressing gown walking down one of the tunnels. It’s definitely an odd place and if you ever get the chance to go, go!

Ley lines are a pile of poo. In a country which has been densely populated for millennia, if you draw a straight line across a map pretty well anywhere, it's going to pass through several ancient monuments, particularly if (as ley line hunters do) count monuments from any period (medieval parish churches and Bronze Age barrows) and have no set requirement as to how close they have to be.

If I take a drone photo of my part of Hampshire tomorrow at 10 and then draw a line through it, it's bound to pass through several red cars parked on the road. That doesn't mean there's any kind of mystical significance to either red cars or my line. It just means that red cars are quite common these days. As are ancient monuments.

I did find a strange vibe to Glastonbury, but that was undoubtedly to do with the exotically dressed young woman who suddenly broke into a strange chant in the Abbot's kitchen.

@artisanparsnips Ooooh I only ever went to Briton once and felt exactly the same !! Oppressive, over powering, seems to lean in on you. Very strange place yet beautiful.

Lynda, you beat me to it re Wigtown! However I went in first lockdown when everything was shut... but it's obviously a gloomy ominous place because of its history...the Wigtown Martyrs...the poor innocent women drowned in the river.. I walked down there over the boards and couldn't get away quick enough....

I enjoy Matlock and Matlock Bath (if a bit boring), but I agree with PP that Masson Mills feels a bit suffocating...

@LyndaSnellsSniff

There are 2 places where I felt particularly uneasy. One was Wigtown in Dumfries & Galloway which is known for its bookshops. On the day we visited the town was surrounded by a ring of fog but the town itself was completely fog-free. I found the bookshops quite creepy and I remember one of the shops was actually in someone’s house. I expect I’m misremembering but I seem to recall the front door creaking open and us being ushered in by a very strange person.

The other place is the Secret Wartime Tunnels at Dover Castle. Now, Dover Castle is bloody amazing and well worth a visit but those tunnels as creepy AF. I was fortunate enough to once have a tour of parts of the tunnels not open the public. There is a T.V studio from where the BBC planned to broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack. A (very level-headed) friend of mine is convinced she saw a man dressed in an old fashioned dressing gown walking down one of the tunnels. It’s definitely an odd place and if you ever get the chance to go, go!

Ooh creepy. I'm watching a YouTube video of the Hoof GP who lives in Wigtown. Weird or what 😁

that video

Glastonbury is a lifelong special place to me , always known it well as have family nearby, and yes I'm a bit woo etc.. but it's a place with its downside and also a place that does (or should) command some respect...
I got engaged on the Tor (didn't last!) but was special at the time. I also had a very scary experience as a child on the Tor which stopped me going for some years. It wasn't until my late teens when I purchased a book from the Gothic Image bookshop (written by the owners I think) that it all made sense.
In Peter Gabriel's biography he describes walking up the Tor with his heavily pregnant wife and they heard the sound of ghostly hounds and had a feeling of impending doom... she lost the baby shortly after...
I've always been told...Chalice Hill is the hill of love, Wearyall Hill is knowledge but the Tor is power... and it has to be respected. Having seen photos of campers on there in the last few days this is not always the case..
To me it's a place of pure magick and beauty...Gog and Magog, Bride's well, Chalice well, white spring, the abbey etc but Ive lost my dream of moving there. Many friends who moved there hastily moved out again as the crazy intenseness got to them. I'm pagan but very grounded so it would and has on certain visits got to me in a negative way. A lot of travellers arrive for the festival (I've never been) and don't leave the area. These are the ones with dogs on string shouting abuse from outside the Co Op. Like the one that followed me down the high street asking me what colour my pubic hair was . The one that harrassed me for money/ ciggies (neither of which I had) outside Julian Chant when I got my engagement ring made. Really spoiled a romantic moment as they got aggressive. Yes you get these kind of people everywhere but Glasto does have more than most but that's probably to be expected. There's a big drug problem there but there also is in the little market town I live in in a totally different part of the country.
As for the period blood in vials..was that the little voodoo shop owned by Liz and Trevor? Author Liz Williams I think is the name. I remember seeing hedgehog quills etc for sale...they brought out two books about running witchcraft shops and it was spot on re the crazy locals (I was managing my own crystal shop at the time but not in that part of the country) He is often seeing in the George and Pilgrim loudly complaining about the locals...but he seems happy to stay in the area?!

Oooh I love reading about this kind of experience