Touch not the cat

This carving is in a wall in Blairadam forest, Perthshire. It concerns the rumours of a big cat living in the forest.

In January 2004 there was a foot race in this forest and the winner claimed that a big cat - a black panther - scared him so much he won the race because he legged it after seeing the beast! He reckoned it was about 2ft high and 3 ft long. Cat prints were also found in the snow the following day. The Scottish Big Cat Trust acknowledge that there have been a lot of big cat sightings in this area.

The forest was first planted by the famed architect William Adam in the mid 18th century and was the site of several coal mines the last of which closed in 1962.