Sir Lewis Clifford, a Lollard who recanted, left a 1404 will calling his body his "stinking careyne" - buried nameless in the furthest churchyard corner. The will is why anyone knows him. archive.org

A young woman leans over a funeral urn, her arms around it. W.W. Ryland made this stipple engraving in 1774 after Angelica Kauffmann; the Wellcome Collection gives the subject as Death. wellcomecollection.org

Bennane Head has a sea cave, the only genuine thing in the Sawney Bean story. Bean - a cannibal who ate travellers until James VI rode out - was invented by London printers in the 1730s. An anonymous artist has left a sculpted head of Bean deep inside it. tandfonline.com

At Stanton Drew in Somerset, the stone circles are a wedding turned to stone for dancing past midnight into the Sabbath. The Cove stones - the Bride, the Parson, and the Cook - sit in a pub garden. english-heritage.org.uk 📷 Christine Johnstone/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Dunwich's drowned bells are fiction. One gravestone from All Saints' churchyard still stands on the cliff: Jacob Forster's, died 12 March 1796 aged thirty-eight. Now about three metres from the edge. The rest went over. 📷 Dennis Jackson/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Nine miles from the nearest road on Loch Ericht, Ben Alder Cottage is still an open bothy - the one walkers say McCook the stalker haunts. He died in Newtonmore at eighty-five. The estate calls it McCook's Bothy. 📷 Kim McGillivray/Geograph, CC BY-SA

The capstone on Cefn Bryn in Gower had already been called Arthur's discarded pebble when John Williams wrote to the antiquary Edward Lhuyd in 1693. That is the first record, and it was settled even then. coflein.gov.uk

Three stone circles above Minions appear in Camden's Britannia of 1586, already carrying the legend: men turned to stone for hurling on Sunday. Attested that early. The circles are Bronze Age. The sabbath they broke was not. historicengland.org.uk 📷 Jim Champion/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Llyn y Fan Fach in Carmarthenshire is the lake from which, in the legend, a faery woman rose, married a farmer's son, and walked back in. The waterworks track from Llanddeusant arrives at the dam first; since 1919 the lake has served as a reservoir.

A Suffolk nail-cutting formula ran through the week: Monday health, Saturday your true love. Sunday: 'Cut 'em on Sunday, and you'll have the devil with you all the week.' Sunday was courting day; cutting nails was work. archive.org

Strathchailleach bothy stands behind Sandwood Bay. Walkers reported a bearded sailor knocking at its windows. For over thirty years the only resident was a hermit: James McRory Smith, known as Sandy. He left in 1994. 📷 Les Shaw/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Suffolk kept a saying: the price of corn rises and falls with Barton Mere. One old farmer rode out to read the water level before going to Bury market. The mere swells to fourteen acres or dries out entirely. Both answer to the same weather, and always did. archive.org

On Steng Cross moor above Elsdon, a gibbet stood from 1792, when William Winter was hung in chains here for murder, until it rotted. A landowner rebuilt it in 1867. The carved wooden head hanging from it has been stolen and replaced repeatedly.

A 1770 engraving of Orpheus charming the animals, made by J.P. Le Bas from a work by Abraham Hondius, who had been dead seventy-five years by then. The catalogue's subject heading, in full: 'Music, Influence of.' wellcomecollection.org

The morthouse at Udny Green is still in the old kirkyard: massive granite, slated roof, a wooden door then an iron one. A stone dome inside. Built in 1832 to hold corpses until they rotted past use. Category B listed. her.aberdeenshire.gov.uk 📷 Bill Harrison/Geograph, CC BY-SA

"First hang and draw, then hear the cause by Lydford Law." Lydford held Devon's Stannary Courts - sole jurisdiction over the county's tin miners. A local poet's defence: the gaol was so foul, hanging was the mercy. archive.org

In this 1578 engraving by Abraham de Bruyn, Orpheus sits on a stone playing while the animals gather. The Wellcome Collection catalogue records two in the crowd worth naming: an elephant, and a unicorn. Both without comment. wellcomecollection.org

At Loughcrew in Meath, the cairns sit on Sliabh na Caillí - the hag's mountain. The tradition that a hag dropped them from her apron is genuine; the first record is 1864, set down by a school inspector on a picnic. voicesfromthedawn.com

William the Conqueror died at Rouen on 10 September 1087 of a rupture taken during a raid he launched after the king of France mocked his belly. At burial his body proved too large for the grave. Forced in, it burst. archive.org

A stone enclosure beside Logierait church, Perthshire, holds three iron mortsafes, now set in cement. They were hired out in the 1820s to lock over graves until the body-snatchers lost interest. One is child-sized. 📷 Dr Richard Murray/Geograph, CC BY-SA

The bargain for a night under Tinkinswood's forty-ton capstone, Glamorgan: die, go mad, or wake a poet. The first record is Marie Trevelyan's 1909 collection. St Lythans, a mile off, has the same terms. cadw.gov.wales 📷 John Lord/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Munlochy's clootie well: rags tied to trees rot as ailments rot with them. Take one, take the sickness. In January 2022, someone stripped nearly all of them. The trees are hung again. 📷 F Leask/Geograph, CC BY-SA

A witch was turned to stone at Mitchell's Fold, Shropshire, for milking a magic cow dry into a sieve. The tale was first recorded in 1883. Shortly after, someone cut it into a sandstone pillar in Middleton-in-Chirbury church. historicengland.org.uk 📷 Dave Croker/Geograph, CC BY-SA

On 4 August 1577, a black dog burst into Bungay church during a thunderstorm and killed two parishioners at prayer. Fleming published the account that year. By 1864, when Chambers noted the belief, the dog had become a coastal wanderer who only warns.

The Eyam boundary stone still sits beside the Stoney Middleton track: coins in those drilled holes, soaked in vinegar, paid for goods in the 1665 plague quarantine. Near Riley Wood, a walled enclosure holds the seven Hancock graves. One woman dug them all.

Outside Boroughbridge, three monoliths are called the Devil's Arrows - a name first recorded in John Aubrey's 1687 papers. The antiquary Camden described them in 1586 and gave no legend. A fourth stone went into a bridge. historicengland.org.uk 📷 Tom Jolliffe/Geograph, CC BY-SA

In 1891, Norman Collie fled Ben Macdui in terror and said nothing for 34 years. He had made the first neon lamp and helped attempt Nanga Parbat. His words, finally: 'I was seized with terror and took to my heels.' 📷 Alan Findlay/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Knives were handed out at Croyland Abbey every St Bartholomew's Day. The saint was believed flayed alive in Armenia; a knife became his emblem. Chambers adds the day's couplet without gloss: "St Bartholomew / Brings the cold dew." archive.org

West of Dunning, a cairn reads 'Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch.' She is in no Scottish record. The inscription is repainted periodically; nobody knows who does it. Visitors leave pennies, feathers, and Remembrance poppies. dunning.uk.net 📷 Ian S/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Cromwell won at Dunbar in 1650, Worcester in 1651, both on the third of September. He died on it in 1658. Tradition gave the death a great storm. Chambers checked: the storm hit on the 30th and was 'pretty well spent' by Friday. archive.org