Derbyshire big cat: Expert comments on photo of giant paw prints spotted on the edge of the Peak District

A landowner has been left shocked after he spotted massive footprints at his private golf course at the edge of the Peak District, which dog owners don’t have access to.

Suspecting that it could potentially be a big cat, which could travel from a ‘large’ woodland behind the golf course, that connects to Peak District, he captured the paw prints earlier this week..

We have approached Rick Minter, the Big Cat Conversations podcast host and author of Big Cats Facing Britain’s Wild Predators, to ask for his professional opinion on the mysterious paw prints.

Rick said: “The current soggy conditions mean that it’s a good time to spot animal tracks and see their routes. The ground is so soft that many animal footprints are deeper than usual and some are showing slippage. Obviously people interested in big cats are always on the lookout for their potential prints, as one of the key signs of their presence.

“Cat prints tend to have a leading front toe, a wide splay of the toes, and a very large back plantar pad or heel pad. That back heel pad is proportionately much bigger than a dog’s one for example, and it’s a slightly different shape, although the precise outline doesn’t always show up unless you get a perfect print.The wide splay of the toes on a cat print gives rise to the saying about the overall shape: ‘if it’s round it ain’t a hound’, but that’s a bit too simplistic.

“The presence of claw signs in a print is not a black and white rule either, although it is rare in a cat print. For example I have adopted a local stray cat who has two claws out on both back feet, and older cats can lose the retraction of some claws. Also cats may use claws on some surfaces to avoid slippage. When they do show up in a print, cat claws are usually more needle like and not blunt like those of most dogs.

“On these particular prints I cannot see any cat-like features. If we get snow as forecast, there will no doubt be more prints to discuss. Snow can mean that prints expand a bit, so most tracks will look bigger in snow, but again it’s a good time to see the habits of our local wildlife.”

This comes after sightings of big cats in Derbyshire and the Peak District over the last few years. In July 2023, Bernadette Hall and her husband discovered bones in a tree in the Stanton Moor area and Rick said the skeletal remains are potential signs of black leopards in the area.

A few weeks later Paul Stocks, and his two sons Jacob, 20 and Ben, 23, from the Mystic Paranormal UK group, decided to look for the leopard in the Stanton Moor area and were left shocked after they spotted a ‘big black cat’ just six feet away from them.

The men described the animal as a very large, silky black cat with a very long swooping tail. They said it was much bigger than a fox and it moved exactly like the big cats you see on TV.

In 2022 more sightings were reported - Josh Williams and his friend Ben were walking from Mermaid’s Pool on Kinder Scout towards Edale in September, returning home after a night of wild camping in the Peak District. They had just passed Jacob’s Ladder when the pair spotted and recorded what they thought was a wild cat with a ‘long black tail’ in a nearby field.

A few weeks earlier, YouTuber Novice Wildcamper who travels around the UK and records videos of his camping trips heard a growling sound while visiting White Edge. The video which he published on his channel had over 600 comments with many people saying that the growl sounds exactly like a big cat such as black leopard or lynx.

In November 2022, Gareth Brimelow was walking by the River Dane in the Peak District, on the path to the bridge at Three Shires Head – where the borders of Derbyshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire meet, when he noticed a number of carcasses along the route, as well as what he thought could be the paw print of a big cat.

More sightings have been reported in Derbyshire since 2014 – including in Dunston Moor, St Helen's, Eckington, Ticknall and more.