What places in the UK have weirded you out - part two

[Yachtinggwoman]

I have started another thread, as the topic is so interesting.

West Bay felt very weird to me. We went after watching Broadchurch. I think it’s partly the strange mix of architecture. The cliff falls are also creepy. There are signs on the beach warning you to stay away from the cliffs.

Not been to Spalding myself but DH's nan lived there and he & his siblings said the same. "Godforsaken" was the adjective used I recall.

For me, I always got weirded out by East London as a child. We often drove through it, or sometimes took the train, to get to my nan's in Essex - Bethnal Green, Plaistow, Stratford, Barking etc. Not sure why, possibly something to do with Jack The Ripper, The Krays etc. Not been for years and I know a lot of it is now gentrified so probably wouldn't feel the same now.

I think it's in the grounds of Poulton Park on the Poulton Lancelyn estate, where you can - or at least you could when DH and I last did so, over twenty years ago - walk through the grounds, only you're walking through a way recessed into the earth, with a sort of grille above you, so you're hidden from the view of the toffs above. I guess it must be a right of way, and this was how the land owners thought to keep the plebs out of view. I remember thinking it rather strange as we were walking through.

We have something similar near us @UnctuousUnicorns . Not recessed into the ground, but a double wall around what was a fairly large estate (now interrupted by roads and private land). It was indeed to prevent the viewing of estate workers as they moved around by the inhabitants of the Big House!

Selsey Bill and nearby Pagham Harbour 😱

Covent Garden. I don't see or feel the modern Covent Garden at all. It drops me right back into feeling the desperation of women trying to make a living by 'dancing' and so on, and the controlling, sinister, ringmaster types who they had to answer to. Possibly late 19th early 20th century. Or earlier. A Dégas, Toulouse-Lautrec, being glared at feeling.

Newmillerdam near Wakefield. It’s a beauty spot around a lake. I’ve tried to like it but it just doesn’t do it for me, I haven’t been for years. Has it been mentioned ?

Thurso is a magical place to me. My sanctuary, my deliverance. Funny how people can feel so differently towards the same place.

Jaywick. Utterly depressing.

We used to go there nearly every year when our kids were young. One year we were in the club house and the children were in the kids club. My daughter came and told us that the entertainer was doing a routine where he was trying to hang himself from a beam but the knot kept failing. She, aged 8, said “what if someone tries to copy him and the knot works?” Luckily the management were as horrified as we were and sacked the entertainer.

Yes it can. Trauma changes our DNA so the impact of it can passed down the generations. Studies have shown you can know if a Jewish person’s ancestors were in a nazi concentration camp from their DNA.

Parts of Rusholme in Manchester (not the Curry Mile itself, but certain side streets leading off it). My friend lived in various houses around here as a newly qualified nurse, 10-15 years ago. Very creepy houses all of them! One had a tiny cupboard by the front door, we looked in it once after exploring when she moved in. There was a big screw-top bottle of rat poison!!

Another house she rented, very damp and cold, I stayed for a few weeks on a student placement. One morning I crept to the kitchen in semi darkness, as I had to be up before dawn to get to my placement. Every surface was covered in what looked like a swarm of beetle things!! I snapped the light on and they vanished. I assumed I'd been dreaming. Didn't like to mention my strange hallucination in case it spooked her. A few days later, it happened again, but I noticed a sort of whispering noise as they scuttled from the light. Tentatively raised it that evening. We crept down with a torch, and realised we were not dreaming. Both screamed the place down! Yet when we stopped screaming they'd disappeared. She called the landlord, convinced they were cockroaches. He came round with a few 'sticky traps'. He was very jovial, telling us we'd imagined it. Yet we'd both seen these enormous beetle creatures, each one about 2" long.
Over a week, the traps only caught one tiny 'beetle'. It was undeniably a baby cockroach, we looked it up. Landlord dismissed it as some sort of fly. Told us we were 'dreaming' and laughed at us. She moved out soon after.

Another house nearby, I had to wash all my belongings after spending a night there, as the smell of mould/damp even got into my clothes. The landlord provided a dehumidifier, but it didn't seem to help! He insisted it was 'just the English climate'. We're both from South UK, so we assumed he meant the Northern climate due to all the rain! It was only when she moved, and the next house was not mouldy, we realised he was lying!!

Other places with a bad vibe:

Scarborough and Robin Hood's Bay! Every part of this area felt off, even the sandy beaches on a sunny August day. I visited a few times, every trip we left early as I couldn't relax. The part with the old cable car lift, felt the worst.
Tried to do a ghost tour one year. We got the wrong start point so missed the tour, then got lost in the dark! Never again.

Lancaster Castle and the area surrounding it. Very bad vibes. Tried to go to the annual fireworks display twice, and couldn't make it through the evening. Even in a crowd!

Sheffield (every part). But especially the cave tours by boat! Never have I experienced fear like I did on that boat. Anyone else? You have to bend double in the boat to avoid banging your head on the ceiling!!

Barnsley: area between town and the hospital, near the Premier Inn. I used to walk very fast, head down, to get back home with my shopping. (15 years ago, student placement at the hospital!) The rest of Barnsley felt nice and safe. Local people assured me it was far from safe, but I only had bad vibes from one area.

Edinburgh always gave me bleak vibes, even on bright, dry days in summer.

Carlisle felt 'off' in places, mostly around the train station.

Wastwater Lake (Cumbria) had a deeply unsettling vibe. It has a grim history, but I didn't know about that at the time.

The forest trails around the lake were deserted. Deep peaceful pine forests, but something felt unbalanced if that makes sense?

My friend had same feelings when she hiked there with her husband. They both claim they saw a naked man in the forest, running away from them!

I agree with you on West Bay! I went there early this summer as I was doing recces around Dorset/Devon, with a view to relocating, and someone suggested West Bay for the Broadchurch connection.

Found it quite a strange place, with no shops, no sense of community, and just a bunch of obviously seasonal bars and restaurants, so it was clear it must be like a ghost town in the Winter.

I went to Whitby this year for a weekend for the first time. We did a ghost walk one night and there is clearly a lot of sinister/grim history there, although that’s probably true of a lot of seaside places, with pirate/smuggler connections. Thought it was quite seedy and low-at-heel generally, so certainly won’t be rushing back.

Norfolk! Went for a week with family and the people were weird! Insular to the point of comedy.

We live about a mile from a ruined castle . My husband grew up in this area I asked him a few times about the castle and he uncharacteristically advised me not to go there as it wasn’t a nice place - but he wouldn’t elaborate he’s very non woo and stoical One sunny day when my oldest was aged about 4 and obsessed with castles and forts I decided to take him a walk to the castle ruins . There were a few people wandering about and it felt really cold which was odd as it was summer . My child was running about and enjoying himself and from no where I was overcome with a deep fear that we had to get away and quickly . So I scooped him up and rapidly left such a weird feeling and so oppressive .
When I told hubby he just said ‘Told you so’
I’ve never been back.

As a Glaswegian, I feel the same about the low level at Central. Not about Queen Street low level, though.

I’m from Glasgow, did my postgrad at UWS and feel the same.

@FateReset I have the same feeling about Lancaster Castle and Lancaster centre. I had to get away. I presume the old witch trial stuff might have something to do
with it…?

Lake Windermere.

We stayed in a lovely either new build or very well converted house in the winter last year right on the lake and I have genuinely never ever felt so scared and "watched" in my life. We've stayed in lots of apparently haunted places like the wellington hotel in boscastle and Bodmin jail hotel and none have ever made me feel how I felt in that place.

It was to the point that I actually said out loud to whatever it was that we were just trying to enjoy our holiday and I would like them to leave 🤣 it's embarrassing to think of now but I was terrified and trying to sleep was horrendous.

Please elaborate.

www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20190326-what-is-epigenetics