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?

@Elphame

I live about 40 minutes away but rarely visit. I really don't like it and it gives me a killer migraine each time .

It has a horrible violent past and nowadays attracts a lot of very damaged people with all the social problems that entails. It preys on the weak and the gullible and has a very cynical underbelly.

Sorry but your post made me laugh, I have met many people in Glastonbury, none seemed troubled or damaged. I have friends that live there and nearby, many are what people would call “hippies, or travellers”, they are different/alternative but very friendly and welcoming.

I think many people just don’t get it which is fine, some people visit and treat it like a freak show because people dress differently and occasionally there will be someone chanting or meditating in public but this is what I like about it.

We have never met a rude shopkeeper or any unfriendly locals whilst staying there, we went during the summer and most people wore masks and all shops stuck to the covid rules, we felt very safe there, we didn’t se any protests against masks or anyone trying to say it was a hoax.

I've been to Glastonbury a few times and felt very comfortable there, but I am vegetarian, love patchouli and a bit of a hippy/biker.

In saying that, DH and I have been together for so long that we're almost the same person, and so we very, very seldom argue about anything - we had one of those hissed, middle aged arguments at the top of the Tor the first time we went! 🤣

If you want a non-woo explanation for the uneasiness, the slight smell of drains not working quite as well as they could might be part of it. (I have no idea whether or not the drains in Glastonbury have problems, or if the smell is usual.)

Visited the town in 1997 and I couldn’t get out fast enough. Very oppressive I thought. I’d like to back to the area and see the Tor without the town and see if I get the same feeling

I love Walsingham, I also love Glastonbury. I am either wierd, or utterly insensitive.

@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.

Agree totally.

Glastonbury, on the other hand, I absolutely adore.

I felt like this too. Was pleased to leave.

Has anyone visited the old house of correction/prison in Walsingham? You borrow the key and unlock it yourself. The old, dank, dark cells haven't changed and my word it's creepy. We went one dark, cold winter afternoon and it was the strangest experience. So unusual though and if you love social history, certainly worth a visit.

Also I hated Walsingham!

@2beesornot2beesthatisthehoney

What a stupid thread for Woo unscientific people . Glastonbury is crap because it’s crap rundown town full of hippies trying to sponge all your money off you selling you cheap stuff made in China repackaged into cheap fancy boxes. And Key lines are a load of codswallop too . When the most famous aim in the neck author of the defining book bothered the real archaeologists one too many times , the county archaeologist at the time did a brief study his claims. One was a driveway I recall , another a pipeline and another a recently dug construction!

Woo is only there if you want to see it and is simply a figment of your imagination . Which is fine if you keep that in mind and don’t try to award it mystical powers which don’t exist .

Well I’m so glad that someone in this world has a knowledge of everything that has been is and will be in the universe. I can sleep easily at night knowing there’s someone in Mumsnet that can call out the millions of years of human spirituality.

How fortunate to live at a time when this omniscient presence walks amongst us.

Don’t suppose you have Tuesdays euro millions numbers do you?

I've never been to Glasto but like PPs I had bad feelings about Lewes and Hebden Bridge.

I liked Avebury though.

The trees have eyes in Walsingham!

I love these threads, they make me want to go to Glastonbury

Glastonbury is my favourite place. I’m vegetarian, love incense and crystals but definitely not new age.

I think it’s got such an amazing history and has an energy I’ve never felt before.

I love having a browse around all the quirky shops. A lot of it I wouldn’t buy but it’s lovely to look at.

I think if you have to ‘get it’. My husband hates it.

Me and my mum want our ashes scattered up on top the tor
(Sorry bit morbid)

I live North east Somerset and get so excited when I see the tor in the distance.

There was only 1 shop that freaked me out a bit- it was a witchcraft shop that sold vials of period blood 😱

Have they still got that painfully honest Estate Agent in Glastonbury who used to describe properties in their window in almost abusive terms?

I remember the last thread and if you looked at the UK radon map there did seem to be a strong correlation between high concentrations and places where a lot of people felt inexplicably uncomfortable. I don't see why some people couldn't be more sensitive to a radioactive gas than others, so I wouldn't automatically dismiss that as bollocks, but ley lines are, which is a shame because the idea is kind of fun.

There are only two places I've ever felt a real sense of doom. One was Port Appin on the west coast of Scotland and the other was Lincoln. I actually made my DP get up in the middle of the night and leave a holiday home in Lincoln because I was overwhelmed by a sense that something really bad was about to happen, not that it made any difference to anything, because the bad thing turned out to be 3000 miles away. (It was 9/11.) There's not much radon in either of those places though.

I love these threads but a pp mentioned my home town upthread, which is making me feel weirdly defensive!

I’ve heard loads of people say the same about Glastonbury and also Bath! Wonder if it’s some weird Bermuda Triangle type thing with Stonehenge 😂

How can you not feel at ease on Glastonbury? All those crystals, Joss sticks, new age music and best of all....The Fairy Shop (ran by a man with a plaited beard who talks about fairies and orbs) and follows you around talking incessantly with a wild look in his eyes. I took my mother in once, and then, the moment that he started gnawing her ear (not literally), I quickly pegged it downstairs out of there leaving her trapped with him. It was such a lovely hot day that I even had time to buy an ice-cream and sit eating it on the pavement outside, before she finally emerged. Thankfully I'd eaten most of it by then, otherwise she would have stuck my face in it!

I love it at Glastonbury, but Avebury freaks me the hell out, it's terrifying.

It's the people that make it oppressive for me. I'm very crunchy but look normal and feel very judged when I'm there. Everyone performs their alternativeness so self-consciously. I find it dull and exhausting.

I love Walsingham. I know it's probably just suggestibility, but there's a special, deep peace there, as if the devotion of centuries of pilgrims has left a tangible footprint. Glastonbury I found just meh.

I live in Glastonbury...''tis not for the faint hearted.....When it is good it is good when it is bad it is utterly horrific and yet I am still here after 19 years.

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

For lowkey menace I give you Swaffham and Scarborough.

Would be interested to hear what you find menacing about Scarborough? Thank you @Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

@pollyglot

I love Walsingham. I know it's probably just suggestibility, but there's a special, deep peace there, as if the devotion of centuries of pilgrims has left a tangible footprint. Glastonbury I found just meh.

Yes absolutely! It's a veil of peace, which I guess is disconcerting for some. I can feel the shadows of pilgrims but not in a bad way... people praying, laughing, eating, playing...

I can't believe anyone could not like Whitby, it's just about the most chillaxed tiny little English seaside town full of way too many people I've ever visited.
Agree about Malvern, though. Strangely oppressive feeling, though don't really know why.
As for Glastonbury, it was definitely nicer 20 - 30 years ago, when the Abbey and the Tor were the main attractions and the ley-line hippy stuff was just a minor sidebar. Now it's mostly just tatty and tacky.