Report from Chris Smith
Worker Spots Big Cat Roaming Aberdeenshire Golf Course
From the Aberdeen Evening Express 31 st July 2003
A Big cat has been spotted on the prowl near a North-east golf course.
It is the second reported sighting in Aberdeenshire in recent days.
The large black animal was spotted on Insch Golf Course by a course worker.
Dave Wilson, 57, said he saw a puma-like animal as he was tending to a green. He described it as being jet black with a cat-like face.
"I had just completed the raking of the 9th green," he said.
"There's a small field between the Kennethmont road and the railway, and I saw a huge beast walking along quite casually.
"It was in the open for about a minute, then it disappeared. It appeared again on the railway line sniffing around a pole."
Mr Wilson alerted nearby golfers but they only managed to glimpse the animal's head.
But there have been other claims of big cat sightings in the North-east.
On Saturday, Kathleen, of Belhevie, was startled when she spotted a similar animal in woods near Dyce.
And in June a cyclist took a photograph of a big cat while mountain biking on Invercauld Estate, near Braemar.
Raymond Dougherty, 48, spotted the creature and took the indistinct snap as it ran back up the mountain away from him.
In March Kingswells woman Aleen Shinnie saw a large dark tabby cat with dark stripes while walking her dog with her husband at Wellside Wynd near the Bucksburn.
In May 2001, Buchan farmer Bill Duffus found the headless remains of a cat-like creature in a ditch near Peterhead.
And from 1995 there have been sightings of the so-called Beast of Bennachie since when several big cats have been spotted in the Oyne area.
Aberdeen Evening Express, 31 st July 2003
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