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?

Oooh a lot of people mentioning Townsville in Australia. I was going to say the same thing. I live in a tiny place in NSW but we visited Queensland on holiday and loved Brisbane, the Gold Coast and so much of the coast line.... however, Townsville. Holy cow what a weird vibe. It was uncomfortable and I don’t know why.

When I was a child, Schull in County Cork, Ireland felt weird. Just felt empty and grey, maybe didn’t like the name as well.

Tyneham Village in Dorset which was completely abandoned with the military took the land over with the promise they could go back - they never did. It’s just trapped in time.

I live near Royal Victoria Country park and found it eerie that me and my children were walking around the same place my great, great grandfather walked when he was treated there. I don’t really know much about the treatments, will read up on it. The War graves there are nice and peaceful but feel cold but surely only a tiny handful of those who died there.

Glastonbury is meant to be a 'thin place' where the veil between earth and heaven is very thin, and you can see beyond it.

@BlueButtercups

Evit Perions grave in Buenos Aires Argentina was eeerie too.. I worked there for a few years and would wander the Recoleta cemetery.. graves are above ground 😳

I really wanted to go there as a teenager. She was my heroine.

St Margaret's Church, Wellow. V close to where I live and grew up.

Last time we went down that lane, there was a huge gypsy funeral on (they walk en mass to the church behind a horse-drawn hearse), so we had to leave.

Nearby was The Sounding Arch which I believe was just a structure like a Victorian railway bridge over a sunken country lane, just to allow access from one side of the road to the other, all part of the Embley estate (Florence Nightingale's family home).

That was supposedly haunted by a lone horseman! Used to give us kids the willies as we drove through there in the dark on our way home from shopping in Waitrose, Romsey on a Friday night!

The Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza in Mexico. All cenote's give me the wicked creeps due to the whole "portal to the underworld" connotations and the fact that human sacrifices to Chaac were made in many (but not all). The whole of Chichen Itza made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but I've never experienced such a visceral feeling of "RUN" in my life like I did visiting the Sacred Cenote.

A bit closer to home, but driving over Rishworth Moor (where Ian Brady & Myra Hindley were known to leave the remains of their victims) makes me feel physically sick at times. I've often had to drive down the little dirt tracks around the area in thick fog and heavy snow etc, and I just get this dark cloud that descends over me and makes me feel like I'll die up there. It's horrific, but I know that it's my subconscious thinking of all those victims rather than a visceral response.

@PrincessAnnaOfArundale

Oooh a lot of people mentioning Townsville in Australia. I was going to say the same thing. I live in a tiny place in NSW but we visited Queensland on holiday and loved Brisbane, the Gold Coast and so much of the coast line.... however, Townsville. Holy cow what a weird vibe. It was uncomfortable and I don’t know why.

I had to Google...

I read that racial tensions are high. There is a relatively high level of crime and it has become a thing for white people to seek justice vigilante style ie by beating up Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples. Sounds depressing as hell.

I think when you know the history of a place it will have atmosphere like Bergen-Belsen or the Kolyma highway in Siberia or the Jersey War Tunnels. It's more strange when it's an ordinary place like Cardiff and people get a weird vibe (though you know it has a rift in space and time where the Tardis used to refuel in Dr Who, so who knows :) )

Someone mentioned Totnes further up - not Totnes so much but Dartington shops - my DH thought there were ley lines there as he used to feel weird if we went there, but not so much in recent years.

Some places are just horrible and offputting eg I don't like the area around Wembley. But it's nothing eerie or mysterious, it's just a horrible run-down area.

I have to say the HCP's looking after my Uncle in Townsville Hospital couldn't have been any kinder, and looked after him very well, and made up a bed for my aunt in his room for the last couple of weeks so she wouldn't have to keep trekking back and forth, despite lockdown complications.

So it must be the place not the people - Must say I am rather keen to see it now, I want to feel the atmosphere.

I have felt a heavy sense of history in certain places - Kilmainham Prison exercise yard, where prisoners were executed is one. I think it is the combination of extraordinary and momentous events happening in rather ordinary surroundings. Had a similar feeling when I visited the Banqueting House in London where Charles 1st was executed.

Xposted with @TellmeMoreThanThis.
That puts a different perspective on it - sounds horrible, I can well imagine that would cause an underlying sense of tension in the place.

Another weird place is the Fens - especially if you are driving through that area at dusk, when it's a bit misty - just miles of flat land, it would be so easy to get lost - and never found.

Naseby. I've been to other battlefields, including Culloden, and felt nothing but at Naseby I had to leave and go and wait for my DH in the car. Really oppressive sense of being constantly in shadow even though it was a sunny day.

The only other place I've had an even vaguely similar feeling about is Pendle Hill. I'm aware of the witchcraft stories, but I drove past it on a grey day and it was glowering at me. It dominated the landscape in a really heavy, crushing way and my eyes kept being drawn to it for as long as it was in sight, including in my rear-view mirror, almost against my will.

I had a similar experience at Anne Frank's House to PPs, of everyone falling silent as we reached the attics, but it didn't feel stifling in that same way; it was more a sombre, reflective, respectful silence.

Otherwise there are loads of places that people are mentioning that I love(d), sometimes precisely because of the evocative feeling of the area - Hermitage is the one that springs to mind - and sometimes I've just found them really lovely places: York, Tintagel, Glastonbury, Cotswolds among others.

Hampton Court was one. Went there when I was 13 and it creeped me out! Loved the gardens, but I can recall the feeling I had even now, it was 1987!
And the other is piers in general, I find them scary, those wooden beams underneath. And then there is those swimming pools in Britain built on the seaside and filled with sea water, cant remember the name, just looking at the photos makes me want to run a mile...

The old port in Montreal. Creepy.

Bridgenorth in Shropshire. We went after a recommendation . The market was on with one stall selling golly doll pottery, a stall dedicated to English cheese with anti french and pro brexit leaflets and my personal favourite the fella with hitler tattoo selling‘England’ merch.

There was a post about Glastonbury and similar places a while ago, I think Whitby was mentioned. We love Glastonbury, feel really chilled out there (maybe the smell of weed) 🤣 but found the needle in the isle of white a bit odd.

@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?

Wow, I lived Saltburn when we visited! Didn't get any weird vibes.

Auschwitz, not surprisingly. It was literally dreadful.
I got an overwhelming feeling of desolation and misery at Kilmainham Gaol, too.

I rarely feel fear associated with places, more related to situations within places.
For example, there was a run down warehouse on the edge of a small town nearby, which sold all sorts of second hand things, and sometimes there were good bargains for minority things.
I would pop in after work, to have a nose round before it closed.
This time I felt a wave of fear and apprehension as I got out of the car. It wasn’t because it was a dark winter evening, or even that there were no other cars about. I just knew that something bad would happen to me if I went in.
I went there a few times afterwards, before it closed and never felt it again. But I will always remember that absolutely sickening dread.

@Hellocatshome

Glastonbury was odd. Beamish open air museum makes my skin crawl although that may be because I cant cope with people dressed up pretending to be from another time.

Ooh, I really want to visit Beamish museum

I love Beamish

Buxton has an interesting history though. It has its own branch of illuminati, and the surrounding hills have a long standing tradition of witch craft so the fact that the PD kinda skirts around it almost makes sense. in the them us kinda way

Eyam is an odd place. Sometimes it is welcoming, sometimes it is oppressive but there almost seems to be a correlation with the worst plague dates. Although if you speak to the locals they are very keen to be known for things other than being a plague village.

Burley is an interesting place too. It's almost like it has to accept you as being theirs. I have been mistaken for a local there in the past. But it is easy to lose track of time there. Does feel a little like home as adult but it used to terrify me as a child.

Dungeoness - god forsaken and oppressive. I hated it.

Glastonbury - oppressive and intrusive which is in stark comparison to the abby which was like a little sanctury of welcoming. It wasn't the place that felt oppressive and intrusive. it was the people. There were some people that just radiated malice in glastonbury it was very odd.

Salisbury - you may visit but never leave. Lost count of how many times I have ended up getting stuck in a loop going around and around

beer caves - there is a section that i wanted to turn around and just leave but once past and further in it was a better atmosphere

Culloden - oppressively sad and heavy atmosphere. ds had a massive nose bleed and couldn't get away from there fast enough

Some of the older tube stations - but i think part of that was reading the J. Herbert book '48 and his description of the rats running burning through the bodies in the tunnels of the london underground

One section of stone henge, couldn't wait to just move past that little bit. the rest was fine. very odd but both I and ds felt it.

@SVRT19674

Hampton Court was one. Went there when I was 13 and it creeped me out! Loved the gardens, but I can recall the feeling I had even now, it was 1987! And the other is piers in general, I find them scary, those wooden beams underneath. And then there is those swimming pools in Britain built on the seaside and filled with sea water, cant remember the name, just looking at the photos makes me want to run a mile...

Are the swimming pools you mean lidos?

And YY to the underside of piers; we holidayed a few times in Blackpool when I was a child and I hated having to walk anywhere near those awful rusted supports and wooden beams, all encrusted in barnacles and always in shadow and just...urrgghh

Port Arthur, Tasmania- well before the terrible events of 1996. It was a lovely setting but such a sad vibe.

Oh, and Savernake Forest. That's got a creepy vibe.

For me it was the Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield - the pit head baths - you could sense a presence - both me and my son felt it - we have been since and the presence had left.

@Sometimesfraught82

Famagusta!!!

Was just coming on to say Famagusta.

Have been to Cyprus many, many times. Have always stayed on the Greek side usually in the Famagusta area, even right near to No Mans Land (the parts that separates to two sides) without issue.

Decided to take a tour across the border to the Turkish Side as we’d never been. Was pretty eery seeing the Ghost Town, interesting but with also great Sadness and sorrow at the same time.
But it was when we actually got off the bus to the (populated) Old town I knew I didn’t want to be there.The feeling of dread and foreboding hit me straight away.

We were not made to feel welcome at all, it was almost like the locals didn’t want us there at all. So much so we only browsed inside a couple of shops. We were stared at and watched as we were walking through the town and I was actually followed at one stage by two guys who thought I was alone (Dh had taken Dd to the loo!) We kind of just kept walking avoiding eye contact.
We eventually found a cafe owned by an English couple who welcomed us with open arms. So stopped there for lunch.

Last stop was the beach, only it bordered the Ghost Town, there were armed Guards lined up on the beach protecting the border and if anyone got too close, they were promptly chastised and sent back! It was a lovely beach but the vibe was awful. I couldnt get out of that place quick enough.
As soon as we crossed the border back to the Greek Side, The dread and foreboding left me.

I will never go back.