MONSTER

Jimmy’s photo of Killearn ‘Nessie’creature goes viral

Killearn has become a focus of global attention after the Observer last week revealed the appearance there of a mysterious ‘Nessie-like’ image.

The story soon went viral, with media outlets across the world — including Germany, Australia and even China — speculating on just what local man Jimmy Wright had captured on camera.

And social media, including the Observer’s own Facebook page, was soon alight with comments.

Jim Pollock said: “Robbie Coltrane used to live over that way. It might be one of his pets from Harry Potter.”

Jacqueline Miller Cairns meanwhile said it looked like “a giant otter’s head on an old tree stump”, and Les McGlasson and David Wilson both suggested it be called “Donald Stump”.

Daniel Dyer might have been looking for a bit of sympathy. He said: “It looks like an ex”.

The phenomenon began last week after the Observer published the picture, which was taken by Jimmy while walking his son’s dog on Crow Hill — known locally as ‘the cowfield’.

He had put the photo on the Killearn for All facebook page and it had soon drawn attention from locals.

Jimmy (66) then decided he would run a competition for the best name for the ‘creature’, pledging to donate £100 to the charity of choice for the name which received the most ‘likes’ before July 25.

While it was obvious to villagers that the ‘monster’ was in fact an old tree stump, those further afield and not ‘in the know’ soon began speculating and since then Killearn has received