The Lindsey Leopard
The unsolved curious case of Lincolnshire's mystery beast - is it still roaming around our county?
When interviewed by Horsington History in 2024, resident Bernard O’Halloran (above) says he's "not seen it recently" but has "no doubts" it exisited.
Whether you know it as the Lindsey Leopard or the Wolds Panther ... the truth is out there a mystery beast prowling around Lincolnshire has been the cause for much wild speculation over the years. Whether you know it as the wily ‘Wolds Panther’ or the fearsome ‘Lindsey Leopard’, there were scores of people convinced they saw something that didn’t quite add up back in the late 90s and beyond.
One such detailed sighting happened in 2004 when retired banker Bernard O’Halloran was reading at his home in Horsington, near Horncastle, when he saw a large cat-like animal run across his back garden.
The mysterious creature was the latest of dozens of alleged puma, panther and lynx sightings reported across the county at the time. Mr O’Halloran told the Lincolnshire Echo: “I was sitting in the back room when I caught sight of something in the corner of my eye. It was a large black cat about the same size as our pet Alsatian dog Lexy. It bounded across the lawn and disappeared into the undergrowth. It was certainly not a domestic cat – it was something like a panther or a puma.” Mr O’Halloran, who lives at the Post House [sic] on Main Street, said he chased after the animal to try to get a closer look. “We have quite a large garden and I went out there and tried to find out where it had gone,” he said. “I think it had jumped into our neighbour’s garden and then gone elsewhere. It suddenly occurred to me that the cat might be dangerous – but when I ran out I didn’t think anything about it.” Mr O’Halloran said he was not unduly concerned about the possible presence of a wild animal prowling his neighbourhood. “It doesn’t worry me particularly, although my wife is quite concerned now about letting Lexy out,” he said. “I just thought it was a beautiful creature and I was lucky to see as much of it as I did. It’s the sort of thing that will probably never happen to me again.” Mr O’Halloran said his unique experience happened the day after his wife Marian suspected a strange presence near their home. Mrs O’Halloran, a lunch-time supervisor at Bucknall Primary School, said she first became aware of something strange in her garden. “Lexy had become distressed and was sniffing at the door and would not settle down,” she said. The sighting was reported to UK Beastwatch and the British Big Cats Society, which monitor such activity throughout the country. Up to that point there had been some 20 sightings of a mystery black cat in the area around Woodhall Spa, Horncastle, Baumber and Hemingby over the space of just five years. Mr O’Halloran said he was aware of theories that the animals were released into the wild following the Dangerous Animals Act of 1976. “I hear all the explanations and I know what I saw,” he said. “These stories about big cats in the area have gone on for many years but what I saw in my back garden was no domestic cat. I am not the sort of person who panics or would exaggerate such a claim.”