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?

Off the back of this thread... I need to get myself to Glastonbury to check it out!

I like Glastonbury, we love to walk up the tor and visit the area but we don't hang around in town. The people are a bit much. I also like Bath, but only to visit the sights. My ex used to live there and theres a snobbery among a lot of locals.

@LardeeLar yes!!

@MoiraRosesWig

I can't stand Bath though. So bloody twee. And the bus drivers are the rudest I've ever encountered.

Completely agree. I went to school in Bath, my parents would drag us there every Saturday morning and I now avoid going there as much as I can! Twee, full of gawping tourists and, as you say, the rudest bus drivers ever.

Have people who dislike Walsingham considered it is just North Norfolk you don't like?

I have never been to Walsingham but spent a whole holiday in a cottage in North Norfolk feeling out of place and weird in a way we couldn't put our fingers on. The whole family were quite relieved to leave.

That said my ILs from North Norfolk can't stand Walsingham, but I thought it was just because they hate Catholics. They were furious to find it was full of them. (I am one btw).

@Andante57

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

Yes! Something not quite right about the place. Like you're being watched.

I have only stayed in Glastonbury once on a Summer camping trip but I loved it! It felt so special to me and I have wanted to go back ever since, I'm definitely going to visit when able to do so.

I do think some places affect people differently though, in my own city there are areas that feel depressing to me with a sad vibe for no obvious reason and other places feel happy to me. My dh doesn't feel this way.

I love Glastonbury and the Tor is one of my favourite places in the world. It feels peaceful & magical to me. The town itself is a bit tacky. The Abbey is wonderful. I find the energy at the tor and the Abbey beautifully calming. But then I am absolutely open to what others call woo - I believe there are all kinds of energy that we have lost touch with and no longer understand.

I also love Bath and Boscastle.

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

For lowkey menace I give you Swaffham and Scarborough.

I see your Swaffham and Scarborough, and raise you Northampton in the undercurrent of menace and violence stakes. I lived there when Kaiser Chiefs released "I predict a riot" and it felt so apt 😬

@LardeeLar

Off the back of this thread... I need to get myself to Glastonbury to check it out!

Me too. I’m in Australia though so it might have to wait a while

@Jumpjumpjumper

Someone mentioned Hot Fuzz feeling. There's a village called Flamstead that has that.

We go to the scarecrow festival there every year (well, did, until there was a murder that cancelled it, then covid cancelled last year's) and I say it every time. It's very pretty, but I swear Hot Fuzz is based on that area!

Crusty jugglers

Bath left me feeling ill but that's because I mixed up left and right at an important junction and didn't think I'd ever get out of there again

Agree that Bruton is horrible. We stopped there to go and look at graves - my family lived there in the 18th century. Both DH and I were affected in very unsettling ways. DH is normally about as woo as a block of concrete - I wouldn't go there again.

@HintOfVintagePink

Wooky Hole made my physically heave. I had to leave the cave tour and only felt better when we’d driven out of the car park.

I was going to say Wookey Hole. I just couldn't stay there, it was so oppressive. I also can't cope with Glastonbury but I do love Walsingham, Iona and Lindisfarne. I often have vibes about places and sense something very wrong, once I couldn't stay in a certain hotel room because I was just seething with discomfort in it and asked the manager to change us. He thought I was crazy.

I do have Christian faith though and so often pick up stuff due to that. So interesting that many pick up those vibes in Glasto etc. I wanted to like it but just couldn't.

Have no issues with Malvern, though.

@Sumpu @Oversize @artisanparsnips

I second Bruton and, to a lesser extent, Frome.

Bruton has a very “heavy” and dark feeling to the centre for me while the H&W bit is a bit odd feeling but less so! There’s something about the main street in Bruton that just feels sort of sad and dark, not sure why as it’s technically a very beautiful little place in terms of architecture etc. So odd!

Also find Frome a very strange feeling place, quite sad and heavy despite it having some gorgeous parts. Have also felt this in Somerton which is another place that people seem to love!

I live very near Yeovil and go there at least twice a week but have never felt that weird vibe there, despite it being a bit of a dump. It’s so strange how people feel affected by certain places!

@SilverStarburst

Has anyone been to the island near Essex where The Third Day was filmed? Looks interesting.

I haven't been to Osea but I have been to Mersea Island nearby. Its a similar situation with a causeway and once you get over there, its a very old fashioned feeling but more "other worldly" rather than sinister. Its great for a day trip, boat rides around the estuary, tea rooms, walks etc but its really famous for its fresh seafood. There are sheds you can sit and have a seafood feast in with the fishing boats just a few yards up the road. Worth a trip but not at all woo - more Enid Blyton

Oh and another one to add to the West Country list is the fields and villages around Salisbury/Porton Down. Very eerie feeling but perhaps not surprising given its history and what they use the area for (military training/testing/experiments etc.).

[quote Wellsbells]@avocadoinasidecar someone has written a book about my experiences? I wish they’d told me[/quote]
hahahahahahahaha

Stopped off in Glastonbury once, en route back from a work trip. Outstanding memory is of watching a dog pee up a rack of the-dyed clothes outside a shop, whilst it's owner browsed...

Didn't get any strange feelings, but do live in it's heavily ley lined south-eastern cousin, so may be immune 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh and another one to add to the West Country list is the fields and villages around Salisbury/Porton Down. Very eerie feeling but perhaps not surprising given its history and what they use the area for (military training/testing/experiments etc.)

All of Wiltshire is weird, like the underground nuclear tunnels under an entire town etc.

My mum adores Glastonbury and says she feels at home there. I showed her this thread and she says the only place she's felt an intense feeling of dread was Alderley Edge and she had to leave.

I don't think anywhere has particularly freaked me out but this thread is so interesting.

DH and I went to Glastonbury in September and both of us just felt really sad the whole time we were there. We left after a few hours and went to Wells and immediately felt better.

Portland is a place that also made us both uncomfortable, DH is very non woo

Iv been to Bath and there is a feeling about it. Ludlow in Shropshire makes me feel awful. Its hilly like bath with a river. Headaches tiredness. A relative lives there and I stay for a few days. As I leave the area I can feel it lifting. So strange. She tells me it's the air pressure.

My dog feels the same! She didn’t like it one bit and refused to walk around, she just put the brakes on. She has been up and down the length of U.K. and Glastonbury is one town she was not happy to visit! So strange!

A place that I find weird (though not in a woo way) is Box Hill. Not the zig zags up to the top or the viewpoint, but if you go beyond that it's all dreary pubs and residential caravan sites - park homes they call them. They seem so out of place between the beauties of the hill itself and Headley Heath just a bit further on. Hate it.

I have found some places weird and be very glad to leave them. Not yet been to Glastonbury.

Then there are some places that are just rundown and need some investment. Hull is one I don't want to visit again, Aalst in Belgium another.