A SCOTTISH sleuth reckons he’s found compelling evidence of a “Bigfoot” creature hiding out in – Galloway Forest Park.
Part-time labourer and gardener Robert Shankland has shared pictures of what he claims is a 14-inch-long footprint from the giant creature.
The 56-year-old has spent two years hunting for evidence of a “bipedal hominid creature” in the 300 square mile, heavily-forested park.
As well as pictures of the “footprint”, Robert, from Burnside, South Lanarkshire, reckons another image could show the creature staring out at him from trees.
Scotland already has a Bigfoot legend in the shape of “The Scottish Wildman” – Am Fear Liath Mor, in Gaelic – which haunts the summit of Ben Macdui, the highest peak in the Cairngorms.
Robert’s theory is that the Galloway creature could be a relative and may even use a “green corridor” of woods to travel between the south-west of Scotland the Cairngorms.
Speaking today, Robert said he started researching after he heard Charmaine Fraser, part of the British Bigfoot Research team, speak at a conference in Glasgow in 2016.
He said: “She saw the creature as a child and I just started to think about it.
“I decided to see what I could find in my local area, and I didn’t expect to find anything at all. I couldn’t believe it when I came across the footprint.”
He added: “New Galloway and the surrounding area is a green corridor, if you look at it on a map – it’s just a huge space of wilderness. Maybe the creature is travelling through on the way up to the Highlands?”
Robert’s photographs show a large footprint-shaped mark outlined in gravel near to Corson Cone in the Craigdulyart Forest, New Cumnock.
Using a four inch long phone for scale, the “footprint” is at least 14 inches long and seven inches wide.
He also highlighted parts on the creature that he believes are pressure points on the ground and show the curve of the creature’s heel.
Other photographs show similar footprint-shaped imprints in the ground, and in one picture Robert believes he captured something staring out at him from the trees.
Robert said: “I actually didn’t realise it was there until I got home and looked at the pictures. I just noticed this thing in the background and zoomed in. I don’t know what it was, but it was absolutely something.”
Asked what the creature may look like, Robert said: “They think it could be around six and a half foot to maybe seven foot tall, it’s much smaller than the American “bigfoot”, but it has been said it’s still four foot across the shoulders.
“It is likely a bipedal creature, a wild or feral offshoot of a human. There have been multiple reports of sightings across the country. I sent the pictures to the British Bigfoot Sighting Reports and they were very excited. We’re still looking for absolute proof.”
He added: “Various theories have been put forward as to what it might be from a flesh and blood cryptid, some kind of wild human perhaps, or even something paranormal and interdimensional.
“My own research is based solely on a flesh a blood type of being at the moment. However, some sightings suggest that it acts in a way outwith normal reality.
“One of the most common suggestions is what we are dealing with is a humanoid ancestor from the distant past, a sort of pre-historic cousin of ours which has managed to survive, and still survive, up until the present day. How? Nobody quite knows.
“No one will ever know for sure, until definitive proof of its existence is found.”
