What places in the UK have weirded you out?

[Oollliivviiaa]

I know Glastonbury and Bath always come up but where else have you been that just felt "off". Not scary or unsafe as such, just made you feel unwelcome and want to leave. And logically, WHY do you think they do?

Mine are

• Glasgow Centeal station. I've been to lots of stations at all sorts of times but this station always makes me uneasy even during the day when it's busy. Maybe it's because it's such an odd station and easy to get disoriented in.

And

• Berwick on Tweed. Really, really weird vibes there. People were nice enough but it felt a bit like there was some sort of sinister undercurrent. Why? I actually don't know. All I can think of is that it feels quite isolated and a bit like the edge of the world. Maybe the history of the place, means it feels like a no man's land? I know lots of people really like it.

And

• Holy Island. The history, bleakness and again, isolation I think. Plus when we went, all you could hear was the wind and seals which is a bit spooky. I liked it there though.

I wouldn’t want to live in the centre of Manchester but it’s hardly the zombie apocalypse.

Where was that? And how do 25,000 people just disappear?

the mentions of Portmerion are so interesting. As kids in the 70s, we stayed in an art deco style hotel there called the Villa Marina. My Mum was so spooked out that she insisted we leave after the first night. I think at one stage it was used as a military hospital so whether that had something to do with what she felt, I don’t know.

She had very strong feelings about several places. One was not far from where we lived. We went for a picnic and sat near a bridge. Afterwards, Mum said she felt the most terrible heaviness and overwhelming sense of loss . Apparently, during construction there was an accident and many of the construction builders were killed.

I feel depressed in many parts of York - the Cathedral isn’t one of them though, Clifford’s Tower feels ‘heavy’ and unpleasant. A park in Leeds called Goldenacre is very pretty, but I’m overcome with a depressed feeling there for no reason I can think of. I feel a weight has been lifted when I leave. The other large park not far away I absolutely love and it always feels inviting and welcoming.

Saltaire and Salts Mill near Bradford, feel creepy and ‘unreal’ and have a lonely, sad vibe to me. Same with the waterfront area in Leeds, which feels sinister and surreal. I feel if I walked round the back of the buildings they wouldn’t be proper buildings but just a front like a film set. There are so many places that give me sad, surreal or heavy feelings. I’ve been on several house viewings in streets and areas I love, but as soon as I walked into a few houses, I had instant chills and a sense of wrongness. I’d love to know why I react strongly to so many places and why my Mum did too. No one else in the family seems to have this. We are an atheist family and I’ve got the spirituality of J cloth.

@Oollliivviiaa - came on to say I love Berwick upon Tweed and Holy Island. My mum’s father was from there and I have visited it so many times over the years. Love Bath and Glastonbury, too.

Trying to think of some places that have spooked me but nothing is coming up right now. I get spooked if I’m working late in the office and the only one there but that’s because it’s late and I’m alone in a large open plan area which people can see into from neighbouring buildings - not because of our offices per se.

Agree re Dungeness. Very bleak.

So I disagree with your suggestions but this is a great thread to start!

Yeah I thought I'd love Holy island and Bamburgh but I just didn't like the vibe at all. Too bleak and desolate for some reason

I love Liverpool

Todmorden is an odd place, had a few odd experiences there

Oh god just no to Portmeirion. Like a sad Disney

Said this before on here but in Lancashire anywhere beginning with a 'B' is bad:

Bacup
Blackburn
Bolton
Bury
Burnley
Bradford (Yorkshire know)

RAF Fylingdales listening station is near the road between Goathland and Whitby.

I had nice cake in Walsingham so perhaps missed a vibe! Gloucester Asda was scary, but I found even the cathedral felt a bit menacing, although stunning.
And Penzance felt a bit like Brighton to me, not weird, just a few too many unkempt people...I don't know how else to describe them!

I am originally from London but there are so many parts I just do not feel safe anymore, I won’t even visit family anymore.

I knew the time slips would get a mention. Personally I think it's the innumerable crap pizza places that have ruined Bold Street. Walking past what was Rennies makes me wish for a time slip.

Portland in Dorset.. the end of Chesil beach (I think that’s correct). We booked a holiday in covid (the more relaxed covid) and hadn’t realised it was separate to the main part of Dorset. We did actually end up exploring portland and had a good holiday but the whole place had a very creepy vibe. We also visited the prison on the island (well not quite an island but one road in and out) where Gary Glitter is held.. just to make it even more creepy 😂

@Claystayes, I used to live there too. I have never and will never go back. I don’t know why it makes me feel the way it does.

I went to see MCR there for the reunion. The whole vibe of the place was so off (very ‘un British’ style of town planning) that after the gig a hashtag started to the effect of ‘I survived Milton Keynes.’ 😆

Weston-super-mare. Went there for our first friend’s holiday after finishing GCSES. It was all sand and donkeys in the day but after the sun went down and the day trippers went home it had a seedy underbelly. We had to change accommodation because the room had a sliding door with a lock that didn’t work and the manager of the accommodation kept standing at the door peering through the gap. It was the days before mobile phones and had to go to tourist information. A taxi driver described some of the locals as pissing into the wind.

On the woo side of things, there was a pub in Devon we went to every year in a little cove. One year they had renovated the place as there was an influx of affluent home countries types. A previously unused section was opened up for use and we happened to get seated there. For some reason there was an overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere like the air was thick to the point I felt nauseous and claustrophobic and had to leave. Dp noticed it too but rest of family didn’t seem bothered. As soon as we had left the building to walk home we both felt fine. There was also a thunderstorm on the way so it could have been that. But it was bizarre.

Yeah bars on every single shop 🙄

Essentially Bacup and Burnley.

Leighton Buzzard
The name alone gives me the creeps. Actually being there is far worse though. Unwelcoming and the feeling of foreboding that doesn’t leave me until we are about 20 miles away from
it.

The entire north west between about Crewe and until you get to about Lancaster. Everything is just so incredibly weird, I always feel like I have to make sure I always know where the escape routes are....plus I swear the M6 is cursed, there are SO many accidents on it.

Cartmel. Weird little place. Rotherham is very depressing. Wigan similar

Thetford Forest. At one point they had musical pipes there to hit with a beater. My tiny son played them, and the sound echoed as if it were going on for ever, which was strangely eerie, and we didn’t see any sign of any life for hours and hours. Even the birds were silent

I didn't much like the dark and brooding Princetown in Devon, but it probably had something to do with the forbidding presence of Dartmoor Prison.

It doesn’t have a bad atmosphere but in what is now Southampton there was an idyllic village called Itchen Ferry. It was wiped off the map during air raids due to being near the Supermarine factory. (Where the Spitfire was built) All that exists to let people know it was ever there is a small plaque in a memorial garden that is easily missed. It’s just terribly sad to think of a whole community and its history extinguished in a night.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itchen_Ferry_village

Back to the woo. Hatfield train station has an understandably melancholy atmosphere. I had to wait for trains there a lot at one point and there is often lots of fog and mist and just a general lonely sad feeling.

Bournemouth. Everyone was really odd and rude. Coastline was fascinating, but just such a lot of unnecessary aggro.

I guess you mean High Lodge 😂 The musical forest can be a bit eerie on a quiet day, although I still love it. On a sunny Sunday, it's packed, and the small children are all eager for the people ahead to hurry up with their turn so that they can have a go.

I actually like Glasgow station. My absolute worse station I’ve been unfortunate enough to stop at is Nottingham So depressing nothing works no lifts not even a working toilet.