The urban legends that were later proven true

Scientists whetted the appetite of conspiracy theorists by declaring one theory for the existence of the Loch Ness Monster is plausible.

Their DNA analysis is far from delivering proof of Scotland's most enduring myths.

But it proved enough for the world's media to flock to the Scottish Highlands to hear the international team of scientists deliver their findings in Drumnadrochit.

Those clinging onto hope the Monster could be real may be heartened by these other urban myths which were later proved true.

The mythical city that reappeared

The tale of six temples hidden under the sea in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu was first written down by a British tourist in the late 1700s.

The story went that they were covered by a great flood, leaving only a seventh - the Mahabalipuram temple - to stand on land at the shoreline.

The myth endured until the very real reality of 2004's Boxing Day tsunami proved their existence was true.

The earthquake and waves that devastated south Asia with the power of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs uncovered the network of temples in the ancient port city of Mahabalipuram.

Excavations on shore and at sea were already under way before the tsunami struck near the Shore Temple, around 45 miles south of Madras.

But the recession of the coastline following the natural disaster meant visitors could stare at the full extent of the network of temples.

The body hiding under the bed

Almost every child - and perhaps every nervous but imaginative adult - will have some point worried about finding someone hidden under their bed at night.

The most common telling of the campfire ghost story often places killers lying in wait to pounce on their innocent victims in the dead of night.

But a sleeping murder in Memphis in 2010 proved a tragic reality, albeit with a twist. The difference was the person lying under the bed was dead.

James and Rhonda Sargent were the unfortunate couple who had been sleeping above the body of Sony Millbrook at the Budget Lodge hotel.

According to the Seattle Times, the mother of five was discovered in a box beneath the king-size mattress after the Sargents had complained to staff of the foul spell in their room.

It's believed Ms Millbrook had been lying there undisturbed under several guests for several weeks.

In 2014 a jury convicted LaKeith Moody, the father to four of her children, of her murder.

People feel haunted at Hampton Court

Ghost tours are a solid tourist business at Henry VIII's former residence Hampton Court Palace with its infamous Haunted Gallery.

Two of his wives, Jane Seymour (number three, died while giving birth) and Catherine Howard (number five, beheaded after adultery), have long been rumoured to walk the halls - and even cry out - in Surrey's former royal residence.

And a 16th century servant to four Tudor monarchs Sybil Penn, better known as 'The Grey Lady', has been "sighted" numerous times by people who swear blind of feeling her presence.

But the claims of paranormal activity described to visitors have been normalised.

Research carried out at Hampton Court Palace in 2003 found the Palace has an erratic electromagnetic field.

Scientists said they believed this tricks the brain into responding to unseen forces and feeling unexplained sensations.

"The correlations between ghostly activity and magnetic variance were relatively large and tie in with laboratory findings that suggest varying magnetic fields have a measurable effect on human physiology," said Dr Paul Stevens of Edinburgh University.

It may not prove the existence of ghosts. But it could explain why so many people feel so certain to have sensed them.

The waking dead

The news coming out of Caracas may have sounded crackers in 2007 but it was shockingly true: a dead man had woken up.

The body of Carlos Camejo was being processed by officials after what was listed on paperwork as a fatal road accident.

It got as far as him going under the knife during his "post-mortem" when the 33-year-old Venezuelan finally stirred.

"I woke up because the pain was unbearable," he told local paper El Universal, as quoted by Reuters at the time.

While that came as a shock to the morticians, most surprised was Carlos's wife, who arrived to find her dearly-not-so-departed alive and well in the morgue's corridor after being asked to identify his body.

The murderer who did come in through the bathroom mirror

Movie audiences recoiled in horror at the 1992 scary movie Candyman, which fictionalised the urban legend of a killer who broke into his victims' flats through their medicine cabinets.

They may have been relieved to find it had been inspired by a short story - The Forbidden - which saw people attacked in their bathrooms after saying the Candyman's name five times into the vanity mirror.

The last part may have been fictitious, but the method of entry for the attack was shockingly factual.

A Chicago crime reporter Steve Bogira confirmed the short story and film plotline bore remarkable resemblance to his 1987 report entitled: "They Came in Though the Bathroom Mirror."

The 52-year-old victim, Ruthie Mae McCoy, had been shot dead in her apartment in the US city's crime-ridden Projects.

It came after a distress call to the emergency services that she was being attacked by someone who had "throwed (sic) the cabinet down" in her bathroom.

It turned out the method fictionalised in Candyman was a regular form of entry for break-ins in her high-rise block, which - in Mrs McCoy's case - proved deadly.