Places taylareardon Wants to Go

The world’s first museum dedicated to the history of childhood opened in Edinburgh in 1955.

Fascinating town where normal life interfaces with the occult.

This small museum in a 17th-century building honors three iconic Scottish writers.

A modern English garden of eccentric beasts, follies, and oddities.

The names Lúthien and Beren can be found inscribed on the shared grave of the famous writer and his beloved wife and muse.

This medieval sanctuary's tree-framed door looks like a portal to a mythical realm.

Summer in Scotland begins with a spectacularly wild and colorful event rooted in ancient pagan traditions.

Mary Kelly was last seen here before she was murdered by Jack the Ripper.

English antique dealers with a taste for the unusual.

An Oxford museum where visitors can have tea with the Mad Hatter and climb through the wardrobe to a fantasy land.

The elaborate clockwork contraptions in this Scottish gallery create small worlds of whimsy and horror.

A mysterious artist-run cabinet of curiosities and library.

This wildly-tiled artist's palace is a living and growing account of the creator's life, loves, and labors.

Famously misunderstood wonder of the ancient world

The world's largest collection of witchcraft regalia.

Near the former site of numerous witch burnings, this lavish Edinburgh mainstay pays homage to Scotland's brutal history.

A special shop catering to the needs of things that go bump in the night, and also helps kids become writers.

The sign at the garden gate reads: “These Plants Can Kill.”

One part local history, 99 parts gruesome haunted house.

The quaint little store that is said to have inspired a famous Dickens novel was only given its name after the book was released.

One of the oldest scientific gardens in Britain, containing more than 13,302 plant species in its core collection.

The fountain marks the area where hundreds of accused witches were burned at the stake.

A tongue-in-cheek arcade where the games are based on everyday life.

This shop and gallery is a modern-day cabinet of curiosities, unassumingly positioned along an urban thoroughfare.