- There's a quarter mile stretch of road
here in South Ayrshire, Scotland
where you'll see something that seems to defy logic.
I'm Bridget Barbara reporting for Atlas Obscura
and today we're going to break the law of gravity.
This is the Electric Brae.
Brae is a Scottish word that means slope
or steep bank or hillside.
And as you can see,
this road has a slope.
The strange thing is that on this slope,
things appear to roll uphill.
Allegedly, if you put your car in neutral,
it'll slowly roll that way
which as you can see,
would very much defy physics.
We are going to put this to the test.
This is an active road
so we're going to try to do this as quickly as possible.
Oh my gosh,
here I go, okay.
(laughing)
This is so weird.
Oh my gosh.
This is crazy.
I'm not doing anything.
I'm just steering a little bit
but I am going uphill.
Here.
I feel like I'm being abducted by aliens.
This is crazy!
Oh my gosh.
To the naked eye,
this looks like magic.
And in fact,
this phenomenon has been attributed
to everything from magnets to witches
to electricity.
- Growing up here,
it was one of the legends that you have
that the Electric Brae,
it was an electrical phenomenon
that no one could explain.
We only got electricity in the time
in my grandmother's days
so everybody believed it was something to do
with the new phenomenon of electricity
that was causing it. - Oh yeah, interesting.
And actually the electric in Electric Brae
is a hold over from a time when people thought
this phenomenon was caused by an electric pull in the area.
However, the true reason is much simpler.
It's really just an optical illusion.
One end of the road is 286 feet above Ordnance Datum
and the other is 303 feet.
What's throwing us off is the landscape.
The landscape is formed in a way that makes it look
like the slope is going in the opposite direction.
And that creates the optical illusion.
And the same goes for every gravity hill around the world.
- As a child coming up here,
my mom and dad,
we used to come here
and it would just amaze us every time we came here
and it was only as an adult,
that I actually found out what caused it.
- The science behind this is pretty well researched
at this point.
And the secret behind the magic
is written right here on this stone
to let tourists know what's up.
So why are we still so fascinated by it?
Despite knowing the true reason behind the phenomenon,
people still flock to the spot to see it in action.
I think it says something about our curiosity as humans.
That not only is seeing is believing
but we also just can't resist a good oddity.
The wind keeps taking the ball.
And also this is a,
aah! (laughing)
(roaring of vehicle)
Whatcha gonna do little guy?
Ready?
(cheering)
Thanks so much for watching.
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