Author: Ms. R.

Perhaps even before Glasgow city was founded, this medieval spring has been quietly gurgling its way through history. The well is situated in an unlikely spot in Scotland‘s largest city. At the end of the appropriately named Ladywell Street, the well’s small niche is carved into the western wall of the Glasglow Necropolis and Tennent’s Brewery, home to the UK’s largest beer attraction. There used to be 16 of these watery founts across the city in 1736, but few have survived into……

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Everybody does it every day, and still, it is kind of a spicy topic: using the toilet. In Gmunden, Austria, Fritz Lischka decided to point out the fascinating and interesting aspects of the practice of using a toilet bowl instead. That’s why it’s now possible to find oneself surrounded by a variety of historic toilet bowls ranging from neatly painted bowls to jerrys to very sophisticated solutions like the toilet chair that blends with the personal bookshelf. Gmunden is……

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At this spot north of Black Butte the Metolius River flows from an underground spring. Water gushes from beneath the ground at a rate of 50,000 U.S. gallons per minute (190,000 liters per minute). At the viewing area, you can see the springs just below you, and look downstream to the fully-formed river flowing away to the north.  The exact source of the springs is unknown, but it may originate near Black Butte Ranch, south of Black Butte. The springs……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit Nederland, Colorado to meet Scott Harrison. Inspired by a music box he received while he served in Vietnam, Harrison created a hand-carved Carousel of Happiness. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some……

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Those hills may not actually be hills! The crescent-shaped ridge of hills that rise up to 300 feet above the surrounding river plains in central Alabama are known as the Wetumpka Impact Crater. Though it has been overgrown and eroded after millions of years, the nearly five-mile wide crater is the result of an ancient cosmic collision. This site in Wetumpka, Alabama, is the scar resulting from a 1,250-foot (380-meter) cosmic object crash-landing on Earth some 83 million years……

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It is a well-known fact that visitors to Melbourne will certainly see their fair share of street art decorating the walls and pavements of almost every street of the city. Off the beaten track in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor lies a hidden lane tucked behind the busy Chapel Street. It was first developed in 2012 where Fletcher Anderson, a local real estate company, joined together with artist Wayne Tindall to organize and facilitate the drawing and display of……

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Tucked in a remote corner of Presidio Park overlooking the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego, California, is a memorial to a white fallow deer named Lucy. The monument is at the top of a hill in an area known as Inspiration Point. It consists of three rough-hewn standing stones placed next to the perimeter of a sculpted concrete watering hole. Around the bowl-like depression in the center of the circular concrete slab are the footprint tracks of woodland……

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On an island off Ireland’s western coast, perched high atop a hill, sits an 11th-century church not much larger than a car parking space. Teampall Bheanáin (Benan’s Temple) is a tiny oratory in the village of Killeany, on Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands in Galway Bay, Ireland. Measuring 15 feet by 11 feet (3.2 by 2.1 meters), it is considered by some to be the smallest church in Ireland. A Google search for the “smallest……

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