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?

@apalledandshocked

Oh and, randomly, Positano in Italy which is the least woo place you can imagine (very sunny, lots of rich people but no hippies). But I have a feeling that might be the mountains, beautiful as they are, looming over the town feels very oppresive after a while.

Yes, I felt the same when I visited a few years ago

Koh Samui, Thailand had a very dark vibe when I visited some twenty years ago. Also Hat Rin where the full moon parties are held. I couldn’t wait to go home, longest two weeks of my life!

I almost forgot, think I’ve posted about it before once, but The Isle of White is somewhere I will never revisit. I went when I was about 12 and it felt like my parents and I were the only people visiting. The whole places was empty apart from one or two staff in the old hotel we stayed in and when we went out to visit it was the same. The whole island was covered in thick fog the whole time we were there which didn’t help. There was an old waxworks we visited that had hundreds of stuffed animals, natural oddities a torture chamber and the supposed remains of a previous owner that had been murdered in a glass coffin in the courtyard. I already wanted to leave the places, but that was the final straw.

Friends of ours have an apartment on the seafront there and have offered it out to us to stay in whenever we want but I have to politely decline. The memory of it still creeps me out. Now all these years later the only other place that makes me feel similar is Battle. It feels as though atmosphere and all the people inhabiting it don’t want me there.

@alltoomuchrightnow. Yes that is what I was going to refer to. The internet cut out

Omg I just wanted to post a thread about this but searched first! It’s the oddest place, right? Like one part of town was scummy druggies (chav ones not hippy ones) and the other part was hippy central and then some sort of cult was chanting in a circle down the road “we all come from the goddess and to her we shall return”. Honestly they were wearing full hooded cloaks etc. I love weird stuff but it just felt odd? It was also completely dead the night before Glasto festival and we stayed over assuming lots of people would have done the same but, no.

I live nearish matlock and visit a fair bit. When I first went, I had a weird feeling of it being a seaside town, but on a road that led to no-where. I'm used to it now and it's nice drive out.
A PP mentioned Buxton. The last time we went it was cold and raining. Plus the shops were mostly closed down. Was a bit meh for the time it took to get there.
Now codnor Castle, in Nottinghamshire, that has a horrible feeling to it.

Has anyone mentioned Portland in Dorset? We used to go there climbing a lot and I always got the creepiest feeling and couldn't wait to get back to the mainland. But I've just googled it and it looks beautiful in pictures.

Is that where Portland Bill is? If so, we went a few years back. I remember going as a small child and thinking it was quite ordinary. I loved it when we went as adults though.

@lidoshuffle

Stroud and Port Isaac are my unsettling places.

What on earth is unsettling about Stroud?

@artisanparsnips I’ve never liked Bruton either. it seems very sinister, and the house with no roof on the hill is unsettling. I also find wells and areas in Wiltshire dreary and depressing, but Glastonbury not so much

I didn't like the Isle of Wight either and finished a holiday early just so I could get away from there

@Wellsbells

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

It's damp, musty and full of smackheads.

Non woo enough for you?

Stonehenge. Gives me the creeps.

Loe Pool in Cornwall. Really oppressive feeling.

How interesting! I have also found it to have a weird vibe, on the two occasions I've visited. There is a strange and unfriendly energy. The atmosphere feels very cold and almost evil.

Walsingham has an odd feeling about it. That end of the earth feeling. People all looked like each other - beyond weird.

I liked it. But then I like crystals and ruined abbeys.

I never feel comfortable in Salisbury - can't put my finger on it at all.
The Pile of Shite is a strange place, there is a nasty underbelly of drugs and criminality mixed with quaint, olde worlde villages and tourism - much like Winchester, for all it's historic majesty has some godawful parts to it that Lucifer himself would avoid

All the places being mentioned here - Portland, Norfolk, Forest of Dean - I loved. 😂 Must just be more comfortable with the ancient forces of the world than some of the posters here.

As for a non woo explanation for finding Glastonbury unpleasant, I recently read a book about ancient sacred places, and basically there are different kinds of sacred, one kind being where something about the place tends to trigger certain kinds of response in people - nothing to do with ley lines or energy currents, it's a psychological thing. In Glastonbury's case it's presumably the Tor, (and originally the springs). For some people that response is positive for others it feels negative.

Lyme Regis and the Jurassic coast ...beautiful but an underlying something, maybe to do with the fossils of dinosaurs and the evidence of ancient life that would have seen you off in seconds...the landslips revealing them just give me the cold shivvers.

I live near to Glastonbury, it isn't for the faint-hearted for sure. There are lots of non-woo locals as well as the druggies etc.

No, when I was there and went up the beautiful Tor I felt a magical tingly feeling I don’t think I’ve felt elsewhere. I don’t think we spent all that long in the town but I don’t remember any bad vibes (I also love the fact it’s a pilgrimage site for Catholics as well as Protestants, alongside the well-known pagan and Druid elements).

On the other hand, Brighton, where I grew up, has always made me feel uneasy at every step and on every corner. It just feels.. bad. I don’t know why but if ley lines were a thing I’d definely be blaming them. The earth there is wrong somehow.

@LardeeLar

Brighton always gives me a weird feeling, but it's nothing to do with woo. I think it's like this forced joyousness from the well heeled "bohos", while underneath you get a sense of some kind of fragility, and this set alongside impoverished "natives"

I agree with this about Brighton. Not a huge fan, myself. I found parts of it rather sinister feeling, but not in a supernatural or spiritual way - I felt that the people were quite unpleasant and selfish.

I agree @Positivevibesonlyplease - I really dislike quite a lot of Brighton.