Electric Brae
slope associated with an optical illusion, in South Ayrshire, Scotland, UK
The Electric Brae is a gravity hill in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where a freewheeling vehicle will appear to be drawn uphill by some mysterious attraction. The phenomenon is an optical illusion.
Etymology
The term "Electric" dates from a time when it was incorrectly thought to be a phenomenon caused by electric or magnetic attraction within the Brae. The Lowland Scots word brae means a hill-slope or brow (with which it is cognate). The name has also been applied to other slopes in Scotland.
Location
There is more than one stretch of road known as the Electric Brae. The most famous is on the A719, south of Dunure, not far from Ayr, between Drumshrang and Knoweside. Metal road signs that used to mark the location have tended to be taken by visitors, and have been replaced by a stone inscribed with an explanation of the phenomenon.
Explanation
Although the road appears to be running uphill, a suitably free-running vehicle will slowly move off from a standstill. It was widely believed that vehicles were being propelled uphill by a mysterious magnetic force, but the road's apparently uphill slope is an optical illusion.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q1325829. Authority coordinates are 55.381, -4.757. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Electric Brae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.