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?

I've been there a couple of times and just thought it was a tourist trap full of shops selling woo tat.

Was obviously unlucky with those I met!

@Phyllis321 Agree, Thetford gives off bad vibes. But then it is a bit of a dive.

[quote Wellsbells]@avocadoinasidecar no I haven’t actually, but I might do one day. Thanks for the suggestion [/quote]
How could you write a book about one visit to Glastonbury?

I didn't like it, but that was because I thought it was a bit of a silly, pretentious place full of woo shops, not because of any vibe.

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 haven't been to Brighton but I've experienced this same feeling a couple of times on holiday - lots of enforced jollity for the tourists and life is so obviously hard and pretty grim for the locals. Places like that are very depressing.

@undermycatsthumb have you ever read Brighton Rock? Greene manages to capture that seaside seedyness contrasted with holidayers vibe very well.

No, I haven't apalledandshocked - will look it out in the library once it reopens (hooray!)

Lancaster, had such a dark energy to me. The castle especially, I had to leave it pretty quickly.

I love most of the places mentioned but then I am more of a buddhist-pagan and find Christian linked places sinister. Because of all the harm done in the name of that religion.

There was a fundamentalist Christian church down my old road in Hackney. Just a slightly scruffy house but my blood physically ran cold the first time I went near. I felt sick and had to cross the road. I know something nasty goes on there.

I had one guy sit near me on the bus and got a similar bad vibe (his energy not his looks/sex/age). Had to move away.

^some Christian places, not even most or all. walsingham was very peaceful.
York Minster was beautiful but something just felt off there.

I live in the Midlands and there is a village between here and Birmingham that is so eerie, it gives me the creeps. It's like the village of the damned. I've never seen a living person in it anywhere when I've driven through it and I wouldn't be remotely surprised if someone told me it's an enormous front for something or other and nobody actually lives there at all!

Hated Whitby. Apart from the fact it was a dump, my husband felt really unwell the entire time we were there, as soon as we left he felt fine

Last time I went to Brighton I realised there was no greenery. No trees, nothing. I think that’s what makes it feel a bit weird.

@Sparrowfeeder

^some Christian places, not even most or all. walsingham was very peaceful. York Minster was beautiful but something just felt off there.

That's really interesting that the Christian place you found peaceful has been mentioned by some as oppressive feeling - I wonder if those people were Christians? So maybe they were picking up on a less than Christian/older religion vibe from the place that you liked but they disliked.

I wonder if we have ancestral bonds to places - maybe areas that give us bad feelings were places with big battles that claimed our ancestors or something.

We have been watching the Last Kingdom lately so I feel like I would really enjoy any old pagan/dane sites and appreciate the energy.

I didnt have a weird feeling, but Filey, for me, is possibly the most depressing place I've visited. I was shocked because so many people had recommended it. When I Google the images, it looks lovely. I just felt so down walking around there. When we had days out, I dreaded going back to the B&B (which was perfectly clean and welcoming people). Weird.

I've not yet been to Glastonbury and I do like a bit of woo. Before lockdown I went to Hebden Bridge semi-regularly and enjoyed it, but nearby Todmorden had me feeling slightly uneasy for no particular reason the one and only time I went.

YY to Scarborough and Whitby. Scarborough has a god's waiting room vibe about it...gloom and faded grandeur. And Whitby? Just freaked me out. I went a long time ago for one of the goth weekends. The B&B owner was nosey and creepy - hovered over us at breakfast with running commentary about where the produce came from, there were some shopkeepers who were a bit off and it all felt very League of Gentlemen. It all felt very oppressive.

@Sparrowfeeder

Lancaster, had such a dark energy to me. The castle especially, I had to leave it pretty quickly.

I love most of the places mentioned but then I am more of a buddhist-pagan and find Christian linked places sinister. Because of all the harm done in the name of that religion.

There was a fundamentalist Christian church down my old road in Hackney. Just a slightly scruffy house but my blood physically ran cold the first time I went near. I felt sick and had to cross the road. I know something nasty goes on there.

I had one guy sit near me on the bus and got a similar bad vibe (his energy not his looks/sex/age). Had to move away.

There are Christian churches across the whole of the U.K . I guess they would count as your " Christian linked places" . Do you find the whole of the U.K. sinister ? Perhaps you do.

@L41K4

Last time I went to Brighton I realised there was no greenery. No trees, nothing. I think that’s what makes it feel a bit weird.

You're so right - they need some planting along the coastal walk - it would be much lovelier.

@MrsMando

This is very common, I've heard several people say this about Glastonbury.

Something todo with some kind of energy lines?

Overactive imaginations more like

I've been there once for a day trip and loved it. Not new-agey by any means. I felt "energy" or something there but didn't feel it as a negative. The place felt quite cosy to me.

@ScottChegg you've got me intrigued now. Which village? (fellow Midlandser)

The non-woo explanation is ‘imagination’.

Would you feel the same about a city where you didn’t know the history? You didn’t about Exeter.

@Leah2005 Temple Balsall.

Lizard in Cornwall is a strange place. You can feel the resent towards tourists in the air, there is a sense of quiet and calmness, the shops all appear closed but are actually open and the owners faux friendly. A lady refused to sell us a piece from her jewellery store because she couldn’t part with it 🤨 odd, vey very odd.

We visited one year in the summer for a day trip and the place was dotted with scarecrows for some annual competition- it honestly felt like a scene from Jeepers Creepers.

There’s a post office that feels like a set from the early series of Heartbeat and a cottage covered in plant pots like some horticulturalist hoaders wet dream.

Had one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had in a tiny cafe on the way down to the point though and the ice creams in the gift shops are on another level other than that it’s just bizarre.

Glastonbury felt fine to me - bit of a commercial hippy witch thing going on, but a nice change from much of the rest of Somerset.

On the other hand, some towns in the Forest of Dean - Coleford and Cinderford spring to mind - give me the sense that they're inhabited by Dementors. I've never found a place with such a depressing air to it.