I'm glad you started this Martin - I often hold back a bit when I tell folk about places I've been too - like colleagues asking "what do you get out of it?".
It's like,- 'NO WAY CAN I TELL YOU OR I WILL BE DISCIPLINED OR FORCED ON TO LONG TERM SICK LEAVE!!' So I just say - 'Oh you know, I like reading maps and walking but I dont like high mountains........'

Dunruchan Hill in Perthshire had a huge effect on me. When I was there I felt so good and excitable - rushing from stone to stone. It was a cold but bright day and didn't seem spooky in any way. When I got back home I couldn't get the place out of my mind and retrospectively associated the small stone on the hillside with a darkish sexual power and the rest of the place with an extremely heavy darkness. The feeling scares me whenever I think of this place. At the time, there were too many negatives and repressions in my life, and I have a strong feeling that the place hurt me in a way in which I was going to be hurt eventually anyway - it just happened sooner rather than later. I get the feeling that if I was to go back it would be OK.

The Castleton cup and ring marked rocks are a place I've had recurring dreams about since before I really conscious that they were there. I always dream now that I pass them on my way south - I'm always on a kind of exodus, with a heavy heart, and I'm always aware of the gem that is there. The last dream was just after the anthrax/crop dusting scares and I dreamt about a plane going over the place towards the North. It does seem to be a focus of both fears and hopes - it's a personal thing (not any more!!!).

On the positive side - if I were to kick it tomorrow, my happiest memories would be of visiting Ballochmyle (ALIVE!!), Fortingall(utterly enchanting), and of course the whole Avebury area. I felt such positive energies from these places - a real buzz. My family were with me during these positive visits.

I went to Long Meg alone and I felt that it was the most gentle and passive experience I ever had at a site- I felt powerful and positive emotion. I kind of imagine that this could change here sometimes.

The Hills of Dunipace is like an old friend. Always cajin cash for fags AND
I feel is a place of resolution - this is maybe cos I've been here so often at different times in my life and find it easy to focus here. I feel something here and I'm sure it's more than just me taking in all the stories and the lore. It's not a particarly secluded place, but that doesn't seem to matter to me.

I suppose all of the above could be explained away by psychologists, physicists, people's Dads......but you just get a feeling, dont you?

Dont You?

SOMEONE!?

ps another v. spooky place I remember from when I was wee, was an open moorland near West Linton in the Scottish Borders. We stayed there in a home exchange hol. in 1977 (during the hol elvis died). My Mum tells me she felt powerful and dark presences on the moor behind the house. She woke up one night and felt this fear overwhelming her - she says she's never experienced anything like it. I have vague memories of looking out to the moorland and knowing it wasn't a very good place. I also remember birds flying into windows and losing lots of objects there.