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?

The underground Hospital on Jersey, built by the Germans during the war using Russian POW's as slave labour, apparently when they collapsed with exhaustion they were just thrown into the concrete as it was being poured. The company I worked for were doing some work in the bowels of the place which had been untouched since the war, you had to walk down these small, narrow corridors to get to the site and it was like going back in time, creepy as balls, you just knew bad shit had happened there.

Kent.

I’m glad it’s not just me who hates Betwys Y Coed. I can’t even explain why either, it just makes me feel depressed and sad for no apparent reason. It’s a tourist town and is a bit false in that respect, but then so is Llangollen just down the road from there and that doesn’t make me feel like that?

My DM loathes Blackpool and has always claimed it makes her feel physically ill. We used to go to see the illuminations when we were kids and she’d get a headache as soon as she saw the tower in the distance which wouldn’t pass until we were back on the motorway to go home.

I love Liverpool, but the Anglican cathedral has always creeped me out. No idea why? I love cathedrals generally but that one unnerves me and I avoid walking anywhere near it whenever I’m there. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a modern cathedral, built in the 20th Century but is supposed to look old? It’s pretty hideous looking.

Also love Edinburgh, but think it has a really otherworldly vibe to it. Wouldn’t be surprised to hear it’s a portal to another dimension lol.

Blackpool made me feel physically ill too 😂

I am really surprised about Glastonbury. I love it and always feel completely relaxed. Maybe it's because I'm Pagan. I feel at home amongst other weirdos. I was a bit disappointed on my last visit because the little shops didn't seem to be as good as they used to be. However, the Tor and the Chalice Well are timeless.

Creepiest experience was an evening when we got lost when driving round Edinburgh (before Satnav). Eventually we found ourselves going up a narrow road with overgrown hedges, going up Calton Hill. We hadn't got far before my teenage daughter and I were both gripped by a sudden, irrational fear. It was so strong that we shrieked at my husband to go back. He was glad, not because he was scared but because he was grumbling about the hedges scratching the car. The road was too narrow to turn, so we had to back all the way down.

Never had that feeling anywhere else.

I visited Budapest back in 2014, and the caves under the castle were pretty creepy! Quite cold, and some of the walls were damp. Apparently Count Dracula was imprisoned here at one point. One of the exhibits was an orchestra of puppets (if I remember rightly), which had horror movie overtones...

@SmidgenofaPigeon

Blackpool made me feel physically ill too 😂

Me too, I hate Blackpool!

@Fatredwitch I am also Pagan and love all things Glastonbury but the energy in that well was very strange. Literally felt like I was being pulled down the well - possibly a wormhole for energy? I know what you mean about the shops though - it all felt a bit ‘funfair’ the last time I was there. Interestingly my friend cannot Set foot anywhere near glastonbury as it make her violently ill and yet she is the most witchy person I have ever met

@Tzimi

I visited Budapest back in 2014, and the caves under the castle were pretty creepy! Quite cold, and some of the walls were damp. Apparently Count Dracula was imprisoned here at one point. One of the exhibits was an orchestra of puppets (if I remember rightly), which had horror movie overtones...

I take it you mean Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Dracul. Count Dracula was a fictiional character, albeit said to be based on Vlad.

@BiscoffAddict

I’m glad it’s not just me who hates Betwys Y Coed. I can’t even explain why either, it just makes me feel depressed and sad for no apparent reason. It’s a tourist town and is a bit false in that respect, but then so is Llangollen just down the road from there and that doesn’t make me feel like that?

My DM loathes Blackpool and has always claimed it makes her feel physically ill. We used to go to see the illuminations when we were kids and she’d get a headache as soon as she saw the tower in the distance which wouldn’t pass until we were back on the motorway to go home.

I love Liverpool, but the Anglican cathedral has always creeped me out. No idea why? I love cathedrals generally but that one unnerves me and I avoid walking anywhere near it whenever I’m there. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a modern cathedral, built in the 20th Century but is supposed to look old? It’s pretty hideous looking.

Also love Edinburgh, but think it has a really otherworldly vibe to it. Wouldn’t be surprised to hear it’s a portal to another dimension lol.

That’s really weird, I really like Betws y Coed, although I can sort of understand why some people might not as it’s such a non-town full of tourists. However, I’ve always felt Llangollen to be incredibly oppressive and heavy - we’ve always driven through it and I’ve always been very relieved to be out the other side.

This is a great thread. I have a couple - Aberystwyth always feels depressing and end-of-the-line and Headley in Surrey - we once looked at a house there and I got a very strong feeling that it wasn’t right - couldn’t put my finger on why but I had a knot in the pit of my stomach.

For the PP who mentioned Ranmore Common - I love it up there, but the church grounds nearby are apparently haunted.

I do wonder what it is that triggers these responses. I associate certain places with feelings of sadness or heaviness, but some of those times I was depressed or anxious, so I could just be associating the place with the emotion.

However, I do remember one place I went to when I was a teenager - a remote church, visiting on holiday with my parents. Dad and I walked in, looked at each other after 5 minutes and agreed there was something very very wrong with it. We left! Wish I could remember where it was - possibly Norfolk.

Lydney - something very oppressive and creepy about the area.

East Grinstead - can't really explain it but feels dark and unhappy. Would not want to live there.

Norfolk, especially the coast around Wells and Cromer.

Some of East Sussex, especially Lewes.

Bamburgh Castle - felt very dark and oppressive in certain rooms - had been on my bucket list for years, but couldn't wait to leave.

Southwick and North Bradley, near Trowbridge 😱

@HillsBesideTheSea How do you know about witchy goings on around Buxton..and illuminati?

Do tell! (PM me if you'd rather) have lived in the area most of my life and would love to know. I am a bit witchy myself but more of a solitary pagan than someone who's part of a scene.

@CakesOfVersailles I did the same thing with the Cannock girls - googled and a horrible image of a sort of demonic Victorian child came up so I shut it down! eek!

Agree with a PP about Wast Water in the Lake District, I was 14 when I went there with my parents and have never felt such a chilling sense of dread and oppression. It still gives me the shivers talking about it now, nearly 40 years later.

Also Silent Pool near Hindhead, part of the Devil's Punchbowl I believe, dead creepy and unnerving.

I loved Ephesus and Portmeirion tho. And as an 18yo I used to regularly sleep overnight in my car at Burley with a group of friends. Brilliant times, I didn't know the history re witchcraft

@wantanotherdog Oh my god, actually more sinister that a live person was behind the painting. Don't know how you slept! Its the thought that it was a hotel person and they would have key to the room.

I would have freaked out, or been tempted to sneak along the wall with a sharp pencil. Pencil in the eye would put any voyeur right off their stride I'd have thought.

The peaks have a long tradition of witch craft there are various groups and moots that happen in the local area to buxton.
I have mentioned on the thread the illuinati thing was a random website i stumbled across in a random search a number of years ago.
I am sure if one were to specifically hunt information down there would probably be some to find. Historical and more modern. I am just a collector or random information gleened from 2am insomnia driven google search worm holes.

So that was for @KisstheTeapot14

@CounsellorTroi Ok, Vlad the Impaler, if you want to be pedantic.

Trebarwith Strand near Tintagel in winter felt incredibly isolated or 'separate'. It was a long time ago that I visited.
Another was at Davidstow on the old airfield, I was driving across in the afternoon and saw a huge strange shape in the sky. Daniken's stupid book on aliens had recently been published along with many items on UFOs. I stopped the car watching this thing change shape.

It came nearer and I realised it was starlings. A huge flock. Not seen much these days because of fewer birds.
If I had been further away and the other side towards Altarnun. I probably would not have known what it really was and still be thinking of it as a mystery.

Aberystwyth is totally fine.

The most I ever felt a bit woo there was exploring a old abandoned hotel on the front, which was said to house squatters. It was vast. One woman was reputed to have a room overlooking the sea purely for ironing. Just an ironing board in there, nothing else.

Have to say that during explorations, we could hear other movements within the building and we looked at each other and as one we cut our visit short! I have never seen The Shining but am guessing it was a bit like that...the Palace Hotel in Buxton also has this vibe. The Mighty Boosh came to play there one year and commented on it and it's true. Weird out of kilter corridors you could get lost down within a late Victorian building with badly aged and run down 70's decor. It often has letters missing from its red neon sign so it just says 'lace'. Town hall is nearly as bad. They knew how to make buildings loom darkly those Victorians.

Going back to Aber:

Like a lot of seaside places it can feel like people have run as far away (from their past?) as they can and 'reached the edge' physically and otherwise.

So, yes there were people sort of adrift if life there. Sort of in purgatory and maybe smoking too much dope.

But nothing sinister.

Inland Wales, like Powys, can be a bit spooky. Tiny run down farms or hamlets (never see anyone, though some must be tenanted) next to grand Victorian church and large graveyard. Makes you realise how de-populised these areas have become in the last maybe 120 years. Plus the brooding big hills so each human habitation feels a bit lost in the vastness. Beautiful but made me feel a bit..sad..wistful...melancholic...

Thanks @HillsBesideTheSea.

It's quite nice to know there are more than a few witches around these hills! You're right I do remember someone tellling me there have always been pockets of 'old religion' as historically quite cut off by its geography - apart from the salt routes. Something Alan Garner picks up on (especially in Thursbitch).

The only place around here I don't like is Bleak Low - aptly named and I got lost up there years ago among the peat groughs. Obviously did find way down in the end but the mist was horrible, deadening. Plus the sinister cackle of grouse. Ugh.

@Musermum

Stayed in the lodges at the Grand Canyon. Couldn't sleep all night... Absolutely terrified. We were convinced we could see animals faces moving in the room. Luckily only one night on a fly drive. Will never go back.

We spent a night in a hotel there - there were mice running around all night (in our room) and the occasional trap going off!

@looptheloopinahulahoop

It just sounds so bizarre! Somebody also mentioned Bridgnorth upthread and apparently, Hitler wanted to make it his new capital once he invaded and had taken over Britain

I thought he wanted to make Oxford his capital and that was why it wasn't heavily bombed during WW2.

Has anyone on here been to Lidice? It was the Oradour of Czechoslovakia.

We live fairly close to Bridgnorth - it's considered to be a lovely place to live. Never new about Hitler - that's really interesting!