Nature & Environment

Large black puma-like cat spotted roaming the Scottish Highlands

By T.K. Randall
April 20, 2026 ·  2 comments

Image: Cairngorms National Park, Scotland
Credit: Thomas Andy Branson / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The UK is certainly no stranger to stories of large exotic cats roaming the countryside, with legends such as the Beast of Bodmin Moor and the Beast of Exmoor being two famous examples.

But it is in Scotland, where the expansive and rugged wilds offer plentiful seclusion and food sources for such a creature, that the reports seem to be more focused in recent years.

This month, sightings of a large black cat the size of a puma roaming just outside the town of Grantown-on-Spey in the Highlands have sparked a fresh new mystery in the region.

The alarm was first raised by local farmer John Kirk.

"It was on Friday night. My wife and I had just come into Grantown at 9.45pm and a very large black cat crossed the road at the old filling station," he told local newspaper The Strathspey Herald.

"It's the second time I've seen such an animal in the area and I have also seen a similar beast in the night at Boat of Garten.""When we came up to the cemetery and old fuel station, a big cat crossed the road in front of us."

His sightings certainly have merit - there have been several confirmed cases of exotic cats roaming wild in and around the Cairngorms National Park.

Just last year, it was revealed that two lynx had been illegally released in the area.

In that particular case, both animals were quickly located and taken to a local wildlife park, but the incident does emphasize that people can and do release exotic cats into the British wilds and that sightings of such animals are not always cases of mistaken identity.

If the recently sighted feline was indeed a puma, there's a chance that it will continue to generate sightings as more and more people see it roaming around the area.

That said, though, sometimes such animals can disappear into the wilds and are never seen again.

Source: The National | Comments (2)

Tags: Big Cat, Scotland