Following the 'what UK places weird you out', what places ground you?

[JellieT0tz]

What places in the Uk make you feel that you can breathe again?!

I live in a North East England coastal town. Despite having the beach, I quite regularly have to drive out into the Yorkshire Moors to ground myself again.

I think it may be related to Biophilia however I dont get the same relief from visiting local nature.

I too live by the coast in the North East. It’s beautiful, but I crave green landscapes and trees and the seaside doesn’t come close to giving me the same feels. I’ve tried to explain this to my husband but he doesn’t get it.

By the sea for me too.

There's a lot of research into the positive effects being near water has on wellbeing.

The most "at peace" I've ever felt is sitting on Tenby beach

Pendennis Point car park. Honestly…
I’ve gone there my whole life, usually being blasted on the cliff top.
I have a painting that features the magic tree hanging from the artists mirror as he hunkered inside his car…

Anywhere in the Outer Hebrides. We lived there a while ago, go all the time (we kept our house) and in 10 years when we retire we’re moving back. There’s not an inch of Harris that doesn’t make me feel at home. Going back in May for a week after 2 weeks in March and just can’t wait.

I love Glasgow and Scotland is full of “thin” places where there is a deep connection with the world beyond. But there’s nowhere like the Hebrides.

Redcar, which incidentally was named a few times on the other thread, but I expect that is because of the heavy industry that is travelled through on one of the routes in. Like anywhere it has its chavvy dive estates and then affluent areas but driving in on one road is depressing with steelworks and chemical works at either side. Even the vast beach is overlooked by former steelworks which many people love but I have always found depressing and if someone was visiting me id have them in a country hall hotel further afield than recommend anything within the town as they are mainly contractors hotels and its embarassing. I dont find the town overall weird but there is a lot of low standards of self and mutual respect.

I know of someone who became wealthy and moved away to the countryside and wants to move back as they find the place magical.

People Flock to our seafront as soon as the sun is out, there is a lovely American diner ice cream shop and soft play pumping out 50s music which has a great vibe. Then there's a few arcades but the atmosphere is lacking since the prize bingo's went.

I love that we have York, Whitby, Scarborough, Leeds, The Lake District and Newcastle all within 90 mins drive and my children can go to a local school within 15 minutes walk rather than have to shlep for miles.

Forest near where I grew up in Hertfordshire

Rathmines in Dublin, walking down the road my Grandparents and dad lived on and where I spent so many happy years is a real calming force. Our family still have my grandparents house and there’s such a calm feeling whenever I’m there, it’s like a really warm hug.

Staithes North Yorkshire coast.

Swimming in Kenwood Ladies' Pond on Hampstead Heath.
Especially first thing on a spring morning with the mist rising slowly from the water.

It's the sea ...so calming just the sound and looking out at the water very calming.
It also works for my son who is autistic it really helps balance out his emotions and grounds him he has to have a little paddle though whatever the weather

Another vote for the South Downs, the West Sussex stretch for me. And woodland, the sound of breeze in leaves.

I visited there for the first time about 18 months ago and it was spectacular. I walked from the railway station through the trees and it was magical.

@Overhaul54

I've just come back from a week in Shanklin. We've stayed in the same flat on the Esplanade for the last 5 years.
It really is my happy place. Even the man in the cliff lift recognises me now. From the minute I get in that ferry I'm at peace with the world
I don't see it as built up at all, but I live in a big city.

At home, my happy place is my allotment

The clifftop path along Milford on sea, looking out to the IOW and the needles lighthouse

, @weegiemum

I came across the idea of 'thin' places a few months ago. Fascinating stuff

Behind the ruins of Knowlton Church in Cranborne, where the pagan site was. I often stop there on my way home from work after a crazy day and just sit by the barrows. There is a strange energy there that calms me deeply.

@JellieT0tz I know Redcar very well so totally get what you mean. However at least you are on the edge on the moors, coast, and as you say close to lots of places (I live in Newcastle now and would love to move back home!). I think round there (I'm from abit further south inland originally but the v north of ny) is one of those really unique places where whatever your into and whatever landscape it's all within a short drive or out your front door; hiking, sailing, running, cycling the list goes on!
I think it's a really underestimated area tbh, but I had to move away to realise that, and there has been much change in the last 20 years in some of it.

The Gower coast and the Firth of Clyde.
My DH, however, gets the same feeling from a place mentioned in the other thread, which, while I'm past being weirded out, often leaves me unsettled.

Also one of my favourite magical
places along with the top of Portland overlooking Weymouth, Mevagissy
and the Wicklow mountains.

Much hadham

Woodland.
Groves
Springs
Waterfalls
Where woodland meets pasture
Lakes surrounded by trees
Shorelines
Old orchards
Old formal gardens at night, with statues, mature planting, trees and lighting.
Plus a very special secret place that I'm trespassing when I go there, but it is full of magic.

Most of Northumberland , Durham, North Yorkshire and Cornwall, especially the coastal areas. I can't say why but they do.

There’s a famous chapter in The Wind in The Willows where they’re walking in the snow and Mole catches a tantalizing whiff of his old home, calling him back…

I was driving across the city where I was born, hadn’t been there for about 30 years, we’d always used the bus, but I started to catch glimpses of places I half-recognised, the parade of shops where my lovely DGM had taken me as a child, the playing fields we’d walk past. Through more recent building work I was able to drive straight to her front gate.
Atavistic memories. Or something…

Certainly breathing deeper getting back to the train station in Durham😂 since when were train stations built on the top of a hill