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.

@TeaRoseTallulah Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
It is the flat "nothing - ness" of it that gets me and the sky seems too "heavy" for it.
I am used to the stunning beaches with castles in Northumberland though so hard to match up to that , imo.

The Whitely Retirement Village, which is like something out of an Agatha Christie novel. It is grade 2 listed, arts and crafts style, with its own shop, post office, church, library, hall etc. It is a charity, and all the houses are like almshouses for elderly people on a low income from the local area (it's in Surrey).

It is clearly an amazing place but it is so weird - like going way back in time. We went to a party in the hall a few years ago and it felt like we had gone back decades.

Stoke /Burlsem

It's not that it's just a bit run down, I also felt really cut off from the rest of the world..like really bad things could happen there and the rest of the country wouldn't know.

When I think of where it is on a map, I would never guess right..it's like it just moves about in the dead centre of England.

There's some places that you can't imagine why anyone would choose to live there. Stoke and Burslem fit that bill for me.

Jaywick on the Essex coast.

Dunbar. Only stopped there to stretch our legs on tbe way to Edinburgh but the town had an off vibe, probably not help that we visited out of season.

Fenland market towns. It's just like stepping back in time and nothing feels quite real.

That's a great description of Wastwater! I feel the same - it's the only lake I really don't like, and have no desire to linger there. It's as if the water is covering up something sinister. By contrast I feel completely at home and happy everywhere else in the Lake district. I think Wastwater is the deepest lake in England.

I like Wastwater but I have a greater respect for it than other lakes. Still swim in it, but never too far out. That makes it sound like I merrily plunge into the other lakes with no care, but that’s not the case. It’s more the feeling that Coniston etc would let me out, but Wastwater could easily decide not to and it would win.

There's a new build village just outside Inverness, called Tornagrain. It is the weirdest place. They've built it to look like an olde fashioned type village, but it looks and feels like something out of Stepford Wives. It doesn't have a welcoming feel to it. But saying that, they've done better than most new build areas as they included a shop, pharmacy and a cafe, and they all blend in like a normal village centre which is not something I've seen on a new build estate before.

Settle, in North Yorkshire. I felt hugely anxious as soon as I'd pulled up to park, and walking around looking at the buildings made it worse. All very weird as it's the kind of place I should have loved...busy market town in the middle of gorgeous countryside with lots of history. I just felt something awful was going to happen to me at any moment.

A couple of people have mentioned Whitehaven. There’s a part of the cliffs on the coast to coast from St Bees to Whitehaven that always gives me a weird impulse to jump in. “Call of the void” I think it’s called.

Strangely enough it’s about in same place where legend has it a mermaid rescued a drowning boy way back when.

Glastonbury always gives me bad vibes despite me being the kind of woo woo hippy who should love it. But I think it’s because it’s a beacon for all manner of damaged people and the kinds of people who use their “spirituality” to manipulate and abuse people and generally cover for them not being very nice people.

I don’t mean all or even most people in Glastonbury are like that (far from it) but there’s enough of them who are drawn there to make it a thing.

It is and there have been at least two recorded (relatively recent, like 19th or 20th century) cases where murderers have chucked their victims bodies into the lake, only for a long time later, the bodies to surface. That could be why it's so intimidating. That, and it's depth, and the steep fell rising up behind.

The Lakes give me mixed feelings. On one hand I've had some enjoyable holidays there but the mountains and high fells make me feel odd. I kind of like them because they are beautiful but at same time they are claustrophobic and almost lonely feeling. In the Cheviots, on the other hand, and in the Durham or Yorkshire dales, I feel very much at home. Northumberland and Durham make me feel I've come home somehow. My borders heritage is quite far back in my family too, I have no recent connection there. But I feel a strong pull there.

Tenby, reminded us of league of gentleman, Tubbs lookalikes everywhere.

Wolverhampton. It sucks the joy from me as soon as I approach. Not sure that’s woo though, but it is such a depressing place.

Parts of Kent make me feel a little unsettled and uneasy but I can't think of any particular "woo" kind of event or any obvious reason why. Canterbury, Wincheap, and Sheerness, especially. I did like Broadstairs. Never did Dover but I wonder if the wartime tunnels could give that one an eerie vibe?

the park in Friern Barnet (N.London area) and nearby Coppett's Wood. Nothing dramatic just an unsettled feeling. I know there was a hospital not far for treating tropical illnesses. The former TB hospital in Ham Green, Gordano, North Somerset, used to make me feel odd too.

Glenside UWE campus in Bristol also gave me the weird feelings a bit. A long time ago I had to have some long term outpatient treatment at one of the psych units at BlackBerry Hill hospital which used to be Glenside hospital, formerly a pauper lunatic asylum. The unit I had treatment at and a few others were open but most of the hospital was closed (this would have been in the early to mid 2010s); it's mostly flats now. That may have been what gave it an eerie feeling.

Bodmin. We were diverted off the A30 once, I think round about ‘97, and had to drive through. I felt an awful sense of foreboding and got quite twitchy, DH noticed. I’ve never again been anywhere near the place. I reckon I had some kind of deep buried genetic code triggered by the prison - which, with my family history, wouldn’t be unlikely.

Agree about Kent. There’s beautiful parts of it, but in some places there’s a sense of foreboding, like something is about to happen. Hythe is lovely, beautiful beach etc but in the town that evening I felt very unsettled.

Then there’s all those endless fields and oasthouses, beneath the picture postcode stuff there’s just something else that I can’t identify, there’s an undercurrent.

Yes agree. Only drove through it once on a foolish attempt to get round the clogged up motorway through Birmingham. It somehow managed to feel like a low budget alternative to Croydon, which is quite some achievement 😵‍💫

Sensed that foreboding strongly in Canterbury around the old bits of the city especially the Cathedral and the park near the city wall. Beautiful old buildings and shops, I didn't dislike it, but the feeling, urghh.

@OtterInABlueTie lots of cathedrals have a violent past, could be to do with that.

I had already left when the Tesco was built, but that’s where our flats were. When we returned after moving for a visit , the Tesco was already open. The flats were condemned and stood empty before that. I lived for 7 years as a child in Aldershot but have good memories of the place! But it was a different time and place then.
But yes, I think the nearest proper supermarket was probably in Farnborough, before Tesco opened.
Your dad / step dad would probably remember Willems Park family quarters they were like the Bronx! My dads car was broken into a few times there and it’s the only time in all the places he’s lived that’s happened!

Ayrshire. The whole of it and I've no idea why but it feels menacing and off and I want to leave as soon as I get there. I've been to lots of supposedly haunted places and felt fine but Ayrshire gives me the heebie jeebies. Paisley in Renfrewshire is the same and I lived there for 20 years. I'm so happy I don't now. They are both opressive and bleak.

I once stayed in a holiday cottage in a remote area of the Peak District. Wish I could remember the name of the area but it was not too far from Bakewell. It was a perfectly nice cottage, stone walls, low beams, very traditional but modern. But woke up in the night with absolutely crippling anxiety and couldn’t get back to sleep. I just remember feeling really frightened and on edge. I suppose this was more the house than the actual area but it all just felt very odd, like something ominous was in the house.

Dorking, especially the A24 leading to and from it. I always feel scared around there, especially at night. The tower blocks of flats next to the A24 look very sinister.

We once stayed in a cottage on a farm near Kilkhampton in North Cornwall. The downstairs was fine but I hated going upstairs. The bedrooms were okay but the large landing and the bathroom felt really oppressive.

Yes to Crediton
I have family who live fairly close to thete and after visiting once we took a diversion through. As we were going home we decided to stop at the co-op/ tesco express whatever it was for some sandwiches for the journey.

We might as well have walked in carrying a neon sign saying "not from round here" as every single person from the walk from the car, into the shop and around the shop looked at us like we had two heads I actually checked my dress wasn't tucked into my knickers.
When I got into the car I said to my DH " for the greater good"

Walsingham in Norfolk has a very strange vibe. A religious pilgrimage town.