Hello everyone. This is my first post on the forum. What follows is my experience of Big Cats on Exmoor.
When I was much younger my family used to Holiday in North Devon every year. We stayed on a farm in Parracombe that provided B&B. Over the years we got to know the family very well and we enjoyed staying on the farm so much that in the evenings the family invited us to help out with various activities including bringing in the cows for milking and collecting sheep for various reasons. On one occasion in the early 1990's (unfortunately I didn't record the exact year) the Farmer had to collect a dead sheep and my Dad jokingly said it was the Beast of Exmoor that had killed it. The Farmer was not amused and told us that they had lost a few sheep to unidentified animal attacks at the time. The Farmer was sure there was definitely "something big" stalking Exmoor. My Dad didn't mention the Beast again.
On another occasion we returned from a fencing job in a field and my Dad and I travelled back to the farm in the Farmers Land Rover. As the Farmer went round the last bend in the narrow lane before reaching the farm he slammed on the brakes. "There you go. There it is." Sitting there in front of us in the middle of the road was a very large black cat. My Dad and I were quite shocked and we sat there in disbelief until it just slowly walked off. "Do you believe in the Beast now?" the Farmer asked us. My Dad just said "bloody hell!"
It is an experience I have never forgotten. It was certainly not a domestic cat due to the height of it in relation to the hedgerow on either side of the road.
On another Holiday after the one mentioned above my Dad and I decided to go for an evening stroll which followed the road up and away from the Farm. We found a footpath going off the road with a signpost pointing to Bumsley Mill. As it was an unusual and amusing name we decided to explore this path. After walking quite a way along the path I stopped dead. In the mud in front of me was a fairly large paw print. I asked my Dad what animal he thought had left this print. He just started looking all around the surrounding area and said "er, right, time to go back now". We returned to the Farm in quite a hurry. Clearly we both looked shaken when we returned to the Farm as my Mum asked us if everything was ok.
We never returned to this path to finish the walk and never encountered the beast again. It appears that someone spotted it at the beginning of this year though
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...UQFnoECGgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3kW3wWRPWSUfMKZEfUSax5