Would this freak you out too?

[dancearoundtheworld]

Not properly freaked out I suppose, more unsettled or spooked. But would you feel like this too?

its a secluded area of countryside near our town. It’s fairly popular with dog walkers and very rural and isolated. At one point the trail goes past a big forrest area which you could in theory go through but nobody does because there’s no real path and it’s all overgrown and like the place that time forgot. There is an abdandoned farmhouse/cottage which looks spooky but just because it’s clearly been deserted for years.

I was walking there recently and suddenly noticed that there was a noose left hanging from one of the trees. It was clearly old ish (the rope was worn and weathered looking so I reckon it’s been there for years) but I’ve just never noticed before as usually I walk past without looking. It sort of freaked me out- it was not a Halloween decoration it was a proper noose set up.

would this freak you out slightly? I’ve felt slightly more spooked walking past that area recently just because I’m aware of it and it’s unsettling. I’m even thinking of stopping walking there but that’s probably a bit dramatic. Just wondered if it would put anyone else on edge or if I’m just being a bit ridiculous.

It's a piece of rope. What is there to be 'spooked' about precisely?

I’m probably just being sensitive but probably the fact that nobody sets up just a noose for the sake of it surely! In my mind it’s not quite the same as just any old piece of rope

I think it would unsettle me, from an emotional perspective rather than a physical one.

No, there's no harm in seeing a bit of rope. But empathising with whoever put it there would stir something in me.

We used to tie perfect nooses to make our rope swings. It could just be that, but the stick has fallen out

I'd only be spooked by it if there was a body hanging from it currently. Otherwise it's just a piece of rope.

I have a friend who is heavily into urbex and photography, they spend a lot of time hanging around taking 'gothic horror' style shots in abandoned properties. This is exactly the sort of prop they'd use. They'd take it with them when they are finished, normally, but there are plenty of mundane reasons why somewhere like this might have a noose nearby, chiefly, wind-up artists trying to 'spook' those with over-active imaginations.

Don't you think that if it was anything sinister, those who dealt with the consequences would have removed it, and it might have reached local media?

Also being honest, me and my siblings used to make stick dolls à la Blair Witch and hang them from trees in the local woodland specifically to freak people out. So could just be that, kids being kids.

There isn’t exactly any local media! It’s a remote rural location. And if it was anything like a suicide etc it isn’t exactly a major nationwide story and wouldn’t make stv news so no, I doubt I would have heard about it. Someone else killed themselves a mile down the road from hanging from a tree in a public park and it wasn’t on the news.

I don’t doubt it could just be something like what your friend does or something as simply explained as photography, although I disagree that relating a noose to something more serious like suicide is an overactive imagination.

Haha yeah it could just be kids being kids (or teenagers too!) I hadn’t thought of that! Maybe they put it up as a prank to scare people or spook them out a wee bit, it definitely worked on me lol

It’s probably a bit of an old rope swing or something.

Even if it is a noose, I wouldn’t be freaked out. I’d assume it was put up as a prank or for a horror photoshoot/student film project or something.

Unless there’s a massive drip feed coming where you reveal that there was also a rotting corpse hanging from it, or a dying witch surrounded by villagers jabbing at her with pitchforks.

Yes, it would unsettle me, although the fact that it's still noose-shaped does at least suggest that it hasn't been used. A man hanged himself from a tree on our local dog walk a few years ago and there's still rope visible high up from where he was cut down 😢 I walked past it every morning with our old dog and my heart went out to him, and to the person who found him. Our current dog, whom we adopted a couple of years after it happened, refuses to pass that tree. He just flattens himself to the ground and won't go on.

Someone else killed themselves a mile down the road from hanging from a tree in a public park and it wasn’t on the news

Yet somehow, you are still aware of it, which is kinda my point.

If someone had used it to kill themselves, it wouldn't still be hanging there with no sign of a corpse anywhere.

It'll either be from a ropeswing, or kids playing at silly buggers to wind each other up. It's exactly the sort of thing we used to do in woods when we were wee. Create a narrative and just let your imaginations run wild.

It would unsettle me. Even if I thought it wasn’t spooky as such, every time I saw it I would think of the thousands of people who were killed in that manner. Not nice.

Even if it is a noose, and even if somebody did commit suicide there, then they were clearly found and removed because they aren’t still hanging there. What’s creepy or sinister or freaky about that? A bit sad, sure, but nothing spooky or freaky.

I’m only aware of it because I had friends who knew the person. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known. I’m not sure exactly what your point is there!

but yeah, I do agree that it is probably just kids messing! We made swings etc when we were younger too so I’m sure it is. I think, as another poster said, it’s not so much what happened with that particular noise but it makes you think of connotations of nooses which are unfortunately very sad

Exactly. The only purpose of a noose, with a hangman's knot, is to cause death by execution or suicide. To put one up as a joke is poor taste. It's no more "just a piece of rope" than an executioner's guillotine is "just a knife", even if it will never be used for its intended purpose.
I don't find it spooky, just distasteful.

I’m only aware of it because I had friends who knew the person. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known. I’m not sure exactly what your point is there!

The point is, if it was genuinely the site of a historical suicide, it's highly improbable absolutely nobody local to the area would know about it, because these things don't tend to pass unremarked upon, and folk gossip.

Combine that with the fact that it's also highly improbable the noose would be left behind if the site was found, and it's also highly improbable to have passed off with nobody noticing to the point that the body has decayed completely while the rope has not, and I think you'd have to be a bit odd to assume it's anything other than a prank or the remnants of some sort of swing or some other totally innocuous purpose.

I mean, if you are the sort of person who automatically attributes everything they see to having some sort of sinister purpose or nefarious background story, then I can understand being a bit disconcerted by a noose, but then I'd suggest that's just down to having an over-active imagination. That sort of thinking isn't uncommon in people who have delusional illnesses, but it's not normal for people who are perfectly well.

Yes, agree. My reaction would be 'Whoa, bit creepy! Haha' but I wouldn't be genuinely scared or think it was actually relating to a real death.

When I was about 17 my friend and I once found an old glove while out for a walk, which we padded out with leaves and half-buried so it looked like the hand of a corpse poking up through a shallow grave. So I can well believe that some teenagers would put a noose up for a laugh and/or scary Instagram pics.

It would probably make me think of suicide, which is a sad and disturbing thing to think about.

But if someone had used it that way, the noose part would have been removed for examination ( when death was being investigated) so I wouldn't be spooked into thinking that this was the actual site of a suicide.

The whole scene you’ve described from the abandoned farmhouse to the noose, quiet countryside woodland, would put me on edge.

There used to be an abandoned house close to where I would occasionally walk our dog (sadly no longer with us). I’d avoid walking past it as it did give me the creeps but that’s just me.

Even in a local area that gets busy with dog walkers, there are paths veering off into quiet wooded areas. I wouldn’t walk through them by myself. It does make me frustrated with myself but I can’t help feeling vulnerable (and probably watched too many horror films).