Beast of Berwickshire spotted near Reston
A MYSTERIOUS creature was sighted in Berwickshire last Tuesday evening as it ran across the A1 at the cross roads near Reston.
Around three feet tall with a canine-ish head and a long straight tail, this Berwickshire beast as yet remains unidentified.
Pat Simpson of Cockburnspath, an IT manager, was surprised by the appearance of the large animal when she was driving home from a workshop in Milton Keynes. It was only the start of twilight and she was able to see the creature quite clearly.
She said: "At first I thought it might be a deer because you sometimes see them running across the road. But it wasn't a deer, its hind legs and nose were more like a dog, but it was far too big to be a dog.
"It had a long straight tail that wasn't bushed like a fox. Its belly was dark and so were its flanks and side, a kind of grey/brown mottled. The ears were rounder than a dog, but I didn't think the tail was fluffy enough to be a wolf."
And this is not the first sighting of a strange animal near Reston. Another reader of The Berwickshire News came even closer to a similar-sounding creature last autumn, when it ran into the side of his car.
The driver described the animal, which had been running down the middle of the A1 just north of Houndwood, as dark gold in colour and over four feet tall, with legs thicker than those of a deer.
He said: "The legs were much too long to belong to a dog, but thicker than the legs of a deer. I haven't a clue what it was. It ran into the side of my car but by the time I stopped it had disappeared. A lady stopped behind me and I asked her what it was, but she didn't know either."
George Redpath of the Scottish Big Cat Trust said: "There are still many sightings of big cats and other unidentified large animals throughout Scotland, but this could have been a wolfhound with an irresponsible owner. These domestic animals have been spotted before running free, they can be the same size as a small dear."
The Irish Wolfhound, a massive, muscular dog, is one of the tallest breeds in the world. Standing on hind legs they can reach seven feet tall, the size of a small pony. They have a rough, shaggy coat, a long head with a moderately pointed muzzle and muscular arched neck, and are often grey in colour.
But these recent sightings are just the latest in a history of unexplained animals in the region. In 2006 a motorist was startled to pass what looked like a giant guinea pig sitting in the middle of the A1, just south of Eyemouth.
Mark Pentecost, of Reston, was driving home from Berwick when he spotted the creature, which was about two feet tall, sitting on its haunches in the middle of the road. When Mr Pentecost arrived home his wife suggested that the animal sounded like a capybara, and on looking at pictures of this huge South American rodent, the largest rodent in the world, Mr Pentecost said it looked very similar to the animal he had seen.
At the time the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said that although they had not had any other reports of capybara roaming the countryside, there had been previous sightings of another rodent called a coypu, but they said it could possibly have been either as the capybara kept in British wildlife parks are so gentle they are often allowed to roam around, and so could easily escape.
Sightings of big cats have also been reported in Berwickshire over the years, particularly at Grantshouse and Reston, and in August 1990 a 3.5ft long male leopard cat was discovered dead near a lake in Berwickshire.
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Weather for Duns
Saturday 11 February 2012
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