A RESIDENT has reported a sighting of what they believed to be a large cat near Gwrych Castle in Abergele.
The report was made to Puma Watch North Wales on Friday (February 3), after the animal was spotted on grassland by the grounds of the castle where ITV’s “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” was filmed in 2020 and 2021.
It follows a similar report from a few weeks earlier, when Wendy Williams said she could see a “big cat” in a field from her Glan Conwy home.
Wendy said: “I was startled when I first saw it, because it was so big and had pointy ears. It looked like a domestic cat, but bigger.
“At first, I thought it was a cow or a horse's head but the more I looked at it, the more it resembled a big cat.
“There was no way it was a domestic cat because of its size. My daughter suggested it could have been a puma.”
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A couple of similar reports were made by residents of Denbigh last month.
Graham Evans said: “I was alone on a walk in the fields behind Denbigh Castle when I first spotted the animal. It was some distance away and appeared to be drinking from a cattle water trough.
“It then jumped down, walked several feet from the trough, then crouched down very low in the grass. It must have spotted me.
“When I am out and about, I always carry a small compact camera. I just managed to take a photo before it sprang up, then jumped over a fence into the next field, ran away into the distance very fast, then disappeared.”
Another resident, Brenden, said he “walked behind my house to dispose of some wastewater near the field behind my property, and I spooked something big and black that bolted away from me, causing the undergrowth to rustle”.
Brenden added: “The noise made me look in the direction of the noise, and what I saw was far too big to be a domestic cat and it had reared onto its back legs to pivot and run.
“I’m a former gamekeeper and know it wasn’t a fox or badger. It was far too big, and leapt away rather than running.
“It scared the life out of me, I was around 10m from it.”
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