Places you have visited with a strange vibe

[RevolvingPivot]

Hi. I'm off to Saltburn (near Whitby) tomorrow and I feel sick. I visited last March. The weekend before the lockdown.

The place was so eerie. I was actually freaked out on the pier and had to run off it. I actually managed to sleep at night but I honestly didn't think I would.

The cottage was surrounded by cliffs and there was a Victorian lift and a small morgue by the beach. I'm not sure whether these have anything to do with it.

Has anyone else had this feeling from a place they have visited?

@Nodal to be fair to the Scientologists, the manicured place on the A22 is the Mormon Temple. The Scientologists are at Saint Hill Manor which is in a more remote location on the other side of town.

I felt like that in Whitby too. Didn't like it at all. Felt suffocated.

I also love Saltburn. We’ve been a few times and like it because it’s a nice quiet resort - probably because everyone else feels like the OP.

@EstuaryBird

I’m not easily spooked, I live next to a cemetery, but I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned The Colloseum 😳.

I’d already found Rome a bit ‘uncomfortable’ but put it down to too many people but when we went to the Colloseum I never felt a feeling like it.

Went in and all OK, quite interesting. Had a wander about, went early so not many people, then as we were walking across the middle it felt more and more oppressive. I couldn’t even speak to DH, just pointed to a way out and legged it.

We went to Ostia Antica next day which I quite liked but spent the whole time dreading going back to Rome.

We’d been to Italy several times and always loved it but weirdly that one moment has now to an aversion to the whole of Italy and I doubt I’ll ever go back 😢

In other news I love Dungeness and Romney Marsh 😊. I love bleak, flat marshland with endless skies and very few people.

We left the colleseum after less than 10mins of being there.

The smugglers caves in Hastings (the funicular railway was awesome though) and also Battle.

I like Saltburn.

For weird you want to try Wroxham in Norfolk. The entire place is dominated by one family, Roys of Wroxham.

@everythingthelighttouches

Port sunlight

I’m surprised port sunlight is considered eerie! I live just up from there and it’s so peaceful and pretty. (Though granted the links to the slave trade are grim)

@Sillysandy

Yes, Townsville in Australia years ago. It felt like vampires had come and ravaged the place.

Completely agree! Very weird vibe.

Wroxham is weird but the barns are great!

Mine is Leiston Abbey. It’s a lovely site except the remains of the dining hall. I’m not woo at all, but something bad happened in that space at some point.

Oradour-sur-Glane in the middle of France.
Almost the entire village massacred by the nazis in June 1944, and left as it was as a permanent memorial.
The silence was really eerie, but appropriate to the circumstances.

I agree about Whitby and Saltburn.
On honeymoon years ago dh and I stayed at a Poussada in Portugal. It was set in a hill near a railway bridge (DH will remember the town) and it has such a creepy vibe we literally got through the night keeping a 2 hr watch on rotation. Looking back I don't know why we didn't just leave but guess we were just too scared to leg it in darkness.

Aldeburgh beaches. The Martello forts.

We went there when I was a child - perhaps 6? 55+ years ago.

Seemed a dark place. I didn’t like it.

However now I’d be quite keen to go back, to see what spooked the 6 year old me.

Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. I couldn’t leave fast enough. I’ve never felt so scared and unsettled as I did there (just from the feeling of the place itself).

Standing Stones at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. Very menacing and creepy.

Conwy Castle in North Wales. I’ve visited the other castles in that part of the world, Caernarfon, Harlech, Rhuddlan etc and never felt creeped out like I did there. It just had a really terrifying vibe.

Kilhope Wheel- went there twice on school trips and both times ended up crying, clinging to a TA and desperate leave despite being in secondary school. The whole place felt oppressive but in the mine itself I felt like we were being followed. Apparently it’s one of the most haunted places in Britain.
The Jorvik Centre- felt a weird sensation in there, fainted and then had to leave. The staff said it happens quite often.
Saltburn I agree with. Went there for a day on holiday and there was a genuinely eerie air. Stood on the pier I just wanted to leave.
The Church of Glenfinnan in Scotland near the famous Harry Potter viaduct gave me a weird feeling of foreboding but everywhere else in that area is lovely.
There’s also a stretch of main road- unfortunately the one to and from my town when coming from the North- that gives me a really bad vibe on a night, to the extent I will try to be back home before nightfall to avoid it as there’s no alternate route. The local newspaper recently published an article about several hauntings on the road, which might explain it.

The Hermitage castle near Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders. It's so eerie and unsettling!

Vale Royal Abbey, while it was still semi-derelict before being turned into the smart venue it is now.

Visited on a bright day in Feb years ago, looked in the windows and walked round the back where it was catching the morning sun. I was standing where the arrow is when I had the most overwhelming feeling of dread. Nothing would persuade me to go back.

Apparently the workmen who were on the project had a number of strange experiences in the wing on the left of the pic.

I’m from the Forest of Dean (escaped a while ago). I think we just get inoculated for weird shit quite early on in life down there, as I enjoy its mysteriousness. But definitely agree some of the villages and towns are grim (shout out to Cinderford and Coleford). There is something inherently unsettling about obvious poverty and deprivation set in such amazing landscape. I also liked Glastonbury when I visited briefly - keep meaning to go and give it a more detailed inspection. Mind you, I’m deeply hippy woo.

Bodmin Jail is seriously grim, and the way they’ve promoted it as a tourist attraction makes it even grimmer. Tea and scones with a view of the old hanging shed, anyone? (Complete with helpful tableau just in case the phrase ‘hanging shed’ wasn’t clear enough for you).

I get the same feeling when I visit run down British seaside towns.

ooh, I thought I didn't have one but suddenly remembered St Agnes in the Scilly Isles. Thought it would have a lovely hippy vibe but it was a group of campers who'd clearly been there ages who all STARED as we arrived. All the houses were silent and there was a calf randomly tied up alone by the beach. It was too Wicker Man and we got the immediate next boat back to the larger isle instead of camping.

Stirling castle in scotland. Love old castles so have visited a lot. Something about Stirling castle made me feel really
Odd, not bad odd (it's a beautiful place) but I can't describe it. Just overwhelmed with something.

Agree about Dungeness, never again!

The museum at Dartmoor Prison gave me the shivers!

Saltburn is haunted by the ghosts of all the surfers who drown... Don't go in the water!