Derbyshire big cats: recent sightings in the county as documentary reveals 'clearest ever' photo of big cat in the UK

A newly-released Amazon documentary titled Panthera Britannia Declassified has caused heated discussions on whether there are big cats roaming across the country.

The documentary, on Amazon Prime, features what it claims to be the UK 'best photo of a British big cat that exists'. The image found among decades-old mail shows a muscular cat with the appearance of a panther. According to the documentary the cat’s size and muscularity ‘suggest it could be exciting proof of big cats in the UK’.

This comes after recent reports of what could be big cats roaming across the Peak District and Derbyshire. Just last month, two hikers discovered bones in a tree in the Stanton Moor area.

After the sighting, Rick Minter, the BIG CAT CONVERSATIONS podcast host and author of BIG CATS Facing Britain’s Wild Predators, told the Derbyshire Times the skeletal remains found near Stanton Moor are potential signs of black leopards in the area.

Soon after that, three men from the Mystic Paranormal UK group, Paul Stocks, and his two sons Jacob, 20 and Ben, 23, decided to look for the leopard in the 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.

Rick said: “The Stanton Moor area has a record for plausible sightings of these large cats. They are often active in ‘edge habitat’, where woodland meets moorland or pasture, and they can ambush prey such as deer.”

These sightings come after similar incidents reported last year – when wild campers came across what they believed was a big cat during a visit to a Peak District beauty spot at the end of September.

Josh Williams and his friend Ben were walking from Mermaid’s Pool on Kinder Scout towards Edale – 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.