Derbyshire big cat: Teenage wild camper more and more convinced he filmed big cat in Peak District a year ago

Josh Williams and his friend Ben, were walking back home after a night of wild camping in Peak District, on September 26, 2022, when they spotted what they thought was a big cat near Jacob’s Ladder.

Josh filmed the animal feeding on a “dead sheep” and said over the last 12 months many people came forward to thank him for the footage and reported other big cat sightings in the area.

Josh, 18, said: “We still don’t know what it was, however between now and the time of release of the video I’ve become more and more convinced that it was a big cat. I’ve noticed various other big cat sightings and reports in the media and a lot of people came forward to me saying they had seen similar things. I was actually thanked quite a few times for getting such good footage because people had been saying nobody believed their stories until they showed family and friends the video that I had captured.

"My friend and I have been back wild camping in Edale a few times since the sighting and haven’t seen anything else, but we haven’t returned to the exact spot since we saw it. We will continue wild camping in Edale and the sighting hasn’t put us off getting out and enjoying the Peak District. However, I do sleep with my axe a little closer to me whenever I go camping now.”

After the video was shared last year, many people came forward and spoke about their big cat sighting across Derbyshire and Peak District.

YouTuber Novice Wildcamper recorded a growling ‘big cat’ 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 a 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.

In July 2023, Bernadette Hall and her husband discovered bones in a tree in the Stanton Moor area.

After the sightings 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.

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.