Each of these is a real, visitable spot whose fame long ago detached from what is there: a stretch of Yorkshire brook you could step across, a Massachusetts waterfront, a Victorian cemetery in north London, a square in Gävle, each carrying a story told often enough to become the reason people turn up. Only one of the four keeps a running tally of how many times it has come true.
A monument to a monster that hundreds of people swore they saw
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A river narrow enough to step across, with no recorded survivors of a fall
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Where Karl Marx and Douglas Adams rest, and vampire hunters once feuded
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A 43-foot straw goat that has survived Christmas only 17 times since 1966
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