Rolling uphill on the A719

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SteveA30
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Rolling uphill on the A719

Post by SteveA30 »

A road was featured on Countryfile (BBC1) yesterday. The A719 in Ayrshire apparently has an optical illusion at Croy Brae, whereby the car appears to be rolling uphill :?
They interviewed a chap who had driven 400 miles from Northampton, just to experience it. C'mon own up, it was one of you wasn't it. :wink:

Interesting though, I'd never heard of it until then. Now I want to go there myself.
Presumably, our Ayrshire contingent know it well.
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novaecosse
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Re: Rolling uphill on the A719

Post by novaecosse »

SteveA30 wrote:A road was featured on Countryfile (BBC1) yesterday. The A719 in Ayrshire apparently has an optical illusion at Croy Brae, whereby the car appears to be rolling uphill :?
They interviewed a chap who had driven 400 miles from Northampton, just to experience it. C'mon own up, it was one of you wasn't it. :wink:

Interesting though, I'd never heard of it until then. Now I want to go there myself.
Presumably, our Ayrshire contingent know it well.
AKA Electric Brae... its pretty cool.. even has warning signs to beware of cars stopping to try it out!!
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Post by Bryn666 »

Yep. I have been there myself, unfortunately my pictures are on my computer in Blackburn, so no uploads... :shock:
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Post by Arcuarius »

Might be a nice Awayday venue - if only it wasn't so far north! ;)
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explo
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Post by explo »

Watched a feature about this on TV some years back. I think it has to do with the angle of the hedgeline or something.
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Post by Arcuarius »

explo wrote:Watched a feature about this on TV some years back. I think it has to do with the angle of the hedgeline or something.
I seem to recall it being on How 2 one day - "How can you roll uphill?"
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c2R
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Post by c2R »

How spooky, I linked the A roads page on wikipedia to the Electric Brae article yesterday.... Didn't know there was anything about it on the telly though...

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Kenny1975
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Post by Kenny1975 »

Yeah the electric brae, its not as good as it was due to the surface being resurfaced.

Is a good illusion surprised never caused accidents since heading south you hit it when you come outta a corner.

They added a layby to accomdate people stoping on it, i rememeber on a school trip to Culzean Castle they stoped the bus and the teacher poured a bottle of water "up the hill"
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Nic
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Post by Nic »

Here's a clip of it.....

Video
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Kenny1975
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Post by Kenny1975 »

Nice to see a vid of it but doesent really do it justice looks a lot better in real life, best thing to do is as my teacher did get some type of fluid and pour it.
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Post by ForestChav »

Surely this contravenes the laws of physics/gravity.
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Post by c2R »

ForestChav wrote:Surely this contravenes the laws of physics/gravity.
Either that or it could be an optical illusion.... (o;
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Post by mattling »

ForestChav wrote:Surely this contravenes the laws of physics/gravity.
Ye cannae change the laws of physics, Jim!
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Post by Queeg »

To go slightly off topic, but was this road not the inspiration for "The Magic Road" on Father Ted? (for those that have seen it)
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Kenny1975
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Post by Kenny1975 »

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explo
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Post by explo »

Mister_Storm wrote:
explo wrote:Watched a feature about this on TV some years back. I think it has to do with the angle of the hedgeline or something.
I seem to recall it being on How 2 one day - "How can you roll uphill?"
I saw it on 'It's A Mystery' with Neil Buchanon! Still have it on tape.
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Post by worcsfan »

I thought we had discussed something like this in the past!

The most famous one is the Magic Hill in the US. But similar optical illusions occur near Niton on the IOW and near Aston Clinton in Bucks.

Steven will no doubt mention if I don't the Crooked House pub near Dudley, where a ball will roll visibly uphill [in fact, the pub leans and the uphill window frame is going downhill at a greater gradient].

Rodborough Common near Stroud has a related effect, where you climb what appears to be a short slope to a summit- but the summit never arrives and you walk for a mile before getting there. Like the Electric Brae, Niton and Aston Clinton, the illusion is caused by the position of the horizon in relation to where you are- or something like that :oops:
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Post by Derek »

worcsfan wrote:I thought we had discussed something like this in the past!
About a week ago actually - I posted it as a reply to a question in the roads quizes here

It really does work - when I went there many moons ago I approached from "the bottom", changed down acog and realised that going down was going up was in fact going down.

We did all the tourist stuff like pouring water on the road and watching it go uphill, letting the car drift uphill and so on.

Highly recommended for a day out if you're in the area.

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Post by horsetan »

Queeg wrote:To go slightly off topic, but was this road not the inspiration for "The Magic Road" on Father Ted? (for those that have seen it)
Possibly. Though I'm not sure about "St. Kevin's Stump" :wink:

And what about the Holy Stone of Clonrichert :?:
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Post by owen b »

On a related matter, there are many fells with relatively flat featureless summits, especially in the Pennines. It can be very frustrating when trying to get to the highest point, as often no matter where you stand there's always somewhere that looks higher.
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