PUTTING THEIR FOOT IN IT
British Bigfoot is back, with multiple prints sparking a cryptozoological film turf war
While Bigfoot is commonly imagined to be a thoroughly North American phenomenon, there is a surprisingly strong tradition of ape men in Britain. They have been sighted near Newcastle at Bolam Lake, on Ben MacDhui in Scotland, where there is the legend of the Old Grey Man, and in Suffolk, where tales of feral Wodewose abound; one allegedly “terrified builders” in Sproughton, and mediaeval fishermen are recorded as having caught a hairy wildman swimming in the sea off Orford (see p42). There have been many encounters across Britain, going back centuries, and while some claims may well be down to investigators with overactive imaginations, ape-men are firmly established British cryptids (see Stu Neville, “The Bigfeet of Britain, FT425:30-36). It seems, too, that they have no intention of fading into history.
In March, walkers on the Maidencombe coast path in Torquay, Devon, claimed to have discovered “mysterious” giant footprints emerging from the woods at Watcombe, imprinted in the mud of the path. The group, consisting of 20 people out hiking with Rock Solid Coasteering, say they were all “weirded out” by the discovery. A member of the group said that the footprints appeared to have been left by something that came out of the woods and followed the coast path for about 20 metres before veering off back into the trees. The group photographed a print, although with nothing alongside to give it scale, but one of the walkers said: “The prints were big. I’m a size 11 and they were half as big again. Clearly a bare foot, every print was perfect like the one in the photo.”
Torquay has form when it comes to ape-men; in 1996 there was a six-week run of sightings of an ape-like creature in Churston Woods between Paignton and Torquay during which it was reported by 15 separate witnesses. The creature was said to be approximately five feet (1.5m) tall and covered in brown hair, with a green face but no tail. Two of the witnesses reported seeing it swinging from tree branches “with tremendous agility”. At the time, Jon Downes, Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, said: “I have many similar reports of such creatures being seen in Devonshire woodland. And this one is a real cracker because it has so much separate and credible corroboration to it.”
In November, while filming a new TV series, Canadian Bigfoot researcher Jason Kenzie turned up evidence for what he believes is a Bigfoot presence in woods near Caerphilly in Wales. He claims his team found 16in (40cm) long footprints and a primitive lair in woodland near the town and glimpsed “a 6ft 7in (2m) being” that Kenzie believes is responsible. After examining the prints, he pronounced that “It could possibly be a Sasquatch footprint... based on the size alone, it does look closer to an unknown creature than a typical human.” However, rival cryptozoological filmmaker Andy McGrath was less than convinced, saying, “You can’t imagine my surprise when I saw the news... they had used the joke footprint that we made while filming a comedy segment about Brenin Llwyd [a Welsh wildman] on Caerphilly Mountain.” He also claimed that his team had made the supposed Bigfoot lair as part of their project. “I can’t imagine how they got leaked out, but they certainly weren’t meant to be taken seriously. I definitely believe that Bigfoot exists somewhere out there in the wider world, but these footprints are about as genuine as a £9 note!” McGrath concluded. dailymail. co.uk, 3 Mar 2024; devonlive.com, 8 Oct 2022; walesonline.co.uk, 12 Nov 2023.