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?

I forgot about the Jersey tunnels. They were mostly fine - sombre, yes, but that's understandable - but there was one spot, right at one end...an archway blocked with wire looking out onto a shaded overgrown patch of ground, and I felt weirdly uneasy just in that one spot.

Rockhampton on the other hand.... one can feel the presence of murderers

I’ve never felt odd about Rockhampton, just couldn’t wait to get out as it’s boring as hell and people seem insular. Don’t like Cairns either as a place, doesn’t have an odd atmosphere just seems to have grown too quickly in all the wrong ways. People are nice there though in the main. Townsville, I’ve just never had the odd vibe people have described. It’s grown a hell of a lot over the years as well and in a good direction.

Maybe not Saltburn but certainly South Gare that’s just down the road. That place always made me think of the Brad Pitt film Seven. I imagined finding a head in a box whilst there. The now closed steal works were a bit spooky too.

@ohnonotyetplease

Just for the record.. homeopathy is not to do with 'feelings' and isn't 'woo'.

Most of South London

Jerusalem - loved Tel Aviv but the vibe in Jerusalem was off, but an undeniably fascinating place, I would love to go back despite feeling uncomfortable there

Bangkok - a smelly, tacky, seedy, sordid, edgy, despairing, wretched poverty stricken shithole. In fact, most of Thailand has an oppressive dark vibe to me, I cannot see the appeal

@WhatsGoingOn3

I stayed at the titanic hotel in Liverpool a couple of years ago, as soon as we drove into the car park it was like a cloud descended over me, I couldn’t shake it off, the whole place had an almost oppressive feel to it, it was incredibly dark inside, our room had a brick vaulted ceiling, very low lighting and was just generally dark and depressing. The hotel was in an old warehouse and surrounded by derelict warehouses waiting to be brought back to life, the whole surrounding area was very run down. I can’t put my finger on what made me feel like that, the hotel itself has fantastic reviews, but I just couldn’t wait to leave the hotel and Liverpool itself.

I cannot for the life of me fathom why this is a hotel. Its in one if the worst, roughest, depressing and derelict industrial areas of the city with literally nothing else near it except the docks (which means endless articulated container lorries passing by), and dilapidated empty buildings. Even during business hours the occupied buildings look uninviting and grim. The only shop I can think of that's nearby(ish) is a sex shop. The only reason I ever go down that way is to get my bike MOT'd and Im glad thats only a once a year visit.

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).
The Sounding Arch was made into a bench which is still there (or at least it was the last time I went there!) I have never seen the Sounding Arch ghosts but never liked cycling/driving round there at night just in case!

@Miljea

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

Oh, I'm currently reading a book set there (The Wolves of Savernake) and it made me want to visit. I'm even more curious since reading your comment.

@ohnonotyetplease

Just for the record.. homeopathy is not to do with 'feelings' and isn't 'woo'.

It's a good method for employing the placebo effect.

The place whose atmosphere surprised me was St Peter's Rome ... because to me it had precisely none. Most cathedrals invoke^^ some sort of feeling - I'm very non-woo and non-religious, I think it's a sense of history and past meaning. But St. Peter's, which I'd expected to have something.... zilch.

ThreeKneeRepeater I have also mentioned Kamloops on a previous thread like this one. Like you we were there on an overnight stop on the Rocky Mountaineer and all three of us (husband and adult daughter) found the place extremely menacing and couldn't get back to the hotel quick enough. In fact, my husband and I did another Rocky Mountaineer trip a couple of years later (different route, but still overnight at Kamloops) and this time we ate dinner in the hotel and didn't venture out at all in the evening.

@Berryofstraw

This is so weird, I opened the thread and I was about to say how Saltburn leaves me feeling really weird. Creeped out now lol

🤣🤣

We love Saltburn! Never had any strange vibes from it. It's just a small , old fashioned seaside town.

@flumposie

We love Saltburn! Never had any strange vibes from it. It's just a small , old fashioned seaside town.

It probably depends on the person.

@ErrolTheDragon

The place whose atmosphere surprised me was St Peter's Rome ... because to me it had precisely none. Most cathedrals invoke^^ some sort of feeling - I'm very non-woo and non-religious, I think it's a sense of history and past meaning. But St. Peter's, which I'd expected to have something.... zilch.

I agree with this, I'm not religious but find places of religion generally fascinating places. But St Peter's left me empty. My mother is Catholic and even she wasn't moved by the place, she kept complaining about how the overly elaborate and embellished statues must have cost a fortune and that money could have gone to the needy instead, to her it went against the principle teachings of the Catholic faith. Her upbringing was all penance, abstinence and sacrifice though!

Loads of people said Savernake Forest on another thread like this.

@Springchickpea

Oh and Burley in the New Forest; something there messes with my sense of direction.

Burley is historically full of witchcraft. There is definitely something unsettling about it.

Boswell in Cornwall is the same and I experienced this fleetingly in a back street in St Ives, although generally St Ives is fine.

I should of also said anywhere underground - I always think I won't get out. I had same feeing in a converted one storied farm building. All the rooms felt normal except the bedroom which had rough stone walls and curved ceiling all painted white - I felt like I was entering my tomb every night.

Does anyone else find Covent Garden spooky? Even when the sun is shining and pre-pandemic there was a lot of touristy bustle, I felt darkness there. A desperation and sadness, as if Victorian or maybe early Edwardian women were trying to get by as dancers, travelling entertainers, flower sellers etc. in a violently masculine society. A sort of Toulouse-Lautrec feeling but grungier and more London.

Strange but in a benign way: Shoreham-by-Sea. It isn't like anywhere else at all and I actually love it.

A friend's childhood home always felt very welcoming and as if I belonged there. She felt it even more strongly and she and her husband are planning on buying it if it comes on the market at the right price. She hasn't lived there since the 1980s and they live miles away.

Big chunks of Kent have a run-down, desperate vibe to them that makes them feel oppressive. I've never understood that "Garden of England" stuff.

@CounsellorTroi

DH and I visited Blarney Castle in Ireland. We joined the queue to kiss the Blarney Stone, which went round some high battlements. I started to feel very uneasy and by the time I got to the Stone was in a state of panic. Kissing the stone involves leaning over backwards while they hold you. I was able to do it but could not wait to get back to ground level. Probably just vertigo, but possibly channelling someone who had been thrown over.

That could be because kids/ teens have been known to piss on the Blarney Stone so your subconscious was trying to warn you ..

Kamloops is fine! My Uncle used to live there, although its a long time since I was there. The place that creeped me out was Biggar in Saskatchewan (Biggar in Scotland is great btw). Very depressing place and the most expensive motel in Canada!

@TellmewhoIam

Does anyone else find Covent Garden spooky? Even when the sun is shining and pre-pandemic there was a lot of touristy bustle, I felt darkness there. A desperation and sadness, as if Victorian or maybe early Edwardian women were trying to get by as dancers, travelling entertainers, flower sellers etc. in a violently masculine society. A sort of Toulouse-Lautrec feeling but grungier and more London.

Very much so! I've never been able to put it into words as eloquently as you.

So glad it's not just me! I even have nightmares set there.

@VeryLongBeeeeep yes, Lidos!
When I was 13 I walked with my gran on the Brighton pier and along the beach, I found it eerie.