Did I find prints on the North York Moors last weekend, or am I losing the plot?

Right, so I wasn't even out looking for anything unusual. Me and my mate Dave were doing the Lyke Wake Walk - Saturday, 14th June, set off from Osmotherley around 6am, overcast, bit of drizzle, ground was soft as anything after all that rain we'd had mid-week. Standard Yorkshire misery, basically.

About three miles in, just past the Scarth Wood Moor section, Dave stops and points at the ground near a boggy patch beside the track. There were these impressions in the peat - roughly bipedal, larger than any boot print I've ever seen, maybe 16 inches long at a guess, and they weren't boot-shaped. No heel tread, no toe-box definition. Just this broad, almost foot-like oval with what might have been toe depressions at one end. There were four or five of them, stride pattern looked long - further apart than my own steps by a fair margin.

Now I'll be honest with you, my first thought was 'some lad's been out here in massive wellies having a laugh.' But the depth of the impression didn't match that - they were deep, like something genuinely heavy had made them. I've read enough on here to know I'm supposed to photograph a ruler or some scale reference next to them, and I didn't, which I could kick myself for. I did get photos on my mobile though. Dave thinks it was a large deer walking in a weird pattern. I think Dave is wrong.

Anyone with experience of the Moors area, or anyone who knows what large deer prints actually look like in peat - please weigh in. I've attached the three clearest photos. Be gentle, I know the quality isn't great.

Deer prints in soft peat can do some really odd things, especially red deer stags - the cleaves splay out massively when the ground is waterlogged and the weight sinks in unevenly. A large stag can weigh 200kg plus, and when both hooves from a single foot sink and spread, you can end up with something that looks nothing like a typical hoofprint. I'm not saying that's definitely what it is, but it's the first thing I'd rule out before getting excited. Did the impressions show any sign of a central split, even a faint one?

That said, the stride length is interesting. Post the photos properly and let's have a proper look rather than speculating blind.

Oh here we go, first reply is already trying to explain it away with deer. Classic. The North York Moors have had more unexplained sightings and track finds than most of southern England combined - there's a reason serious researchers keep coming back to that area. The terrain, the isolation, the ancient woodland remnants around Newtondale... if there's a population of anything large and unclassified in England, the Moors are one of the more plausible habitats.

To the OP - get those photos up. And next time, go back to the site if you can, ideally within a few days before more rain comes in. Cast the prints if they're still there. Dental stone is what you want, not plaster of Paris - about £12 a bag from any good art supplies shop and worth every penny.

I live just outside Helmsley and walk that stretch of moor regularly for work (I do dry stone walling up that way). I've never personally seen anything I'd call inexplicable, but I've spoken to two separate farmers in the last few years who've had livestock disturbances they couldn't account for - one near Bransdale, one closer to Farndale. Neither of them would go on record about it. Make of that what you will.

Dave thinks it was a large deer walking in a weird pattern. I think Dave is wrong.

Dave is almost certainly right, mate. Sorry. I say this as someone who has spent an embarrassing amount of time and money investigating cryptid reports across the UK, including two separate trips to Bodmin and one very cold week in the Scottish Highlands near Loch Ness. The hit rate for 'genuinely unexplained physical evidence' is, to put it charitably, not high. The Moors are gorgeous and eerie and they absolutely encourage the imagination to run wild - which is part of why we all love them - but extraordinary claims and all that.

Still, post the photos. We're all here for it.

Photos are up now in the gallery, I've labelled them YorksMoor_June24_1 through 3. The third one is the clearest. I went back and looked at them again on a bigger screen and I genuinely cannot see a central split anywhere, which is what's keeping me interested. Could just be the angle or the fill from the rain, I suppose.

Also - dental stone tip noted, thank you. Ordered some. If this becomes a habit I may need Dave to stop inviting me on walks.

Just looked at photo three. Okay, I'll admit that's... not obviously deer. The width-to-length ratio is off for red deer even with splay. I'm still not saying Bigfoot - let's not get ahead of ourselves - but I'd be curious what a forensic wildlife tracker would make of it. There's a woman up in the Dales who does that professionally, I can dig out her contact if you want. She's not a 'believer' as such, but she's open-minded and very good.