Had something very similar happen about three years ago out in the Norfolk Broads - middle of the night, heavy footsteps across the roof, and my Labrador absolutely planted himself at the back door and refused to budge. Wouldn't even look at the house. That's what got me, honestly. Dogs don't just do that for nothing.
Did you manage to check for prints or disturbance on the roof tiles the next morning? That's always my first instinct now - grab the camera before anything gets disturbed. I use a Nikon Coolpix for quick close-up documentation. Not glamorous but it captures detail well enough.
Few questions worth considering:
What time did it happen? Repeated at all?, Any smell beforehand? A few Bigfoot encounter reports mention a strong musky odour, Was it rhythmic, like deliberate footsteps, or more random scrabbling?
I know the easy answer is ". Just a fox". Or ". Thermal expansion of roof timbers" - and fair enough, worth ruling out - but a dog refusing to enter its own home is a separate data point that I don't think gets taken seriously enough. That's an animal responding to something.
Norfolk gets written off as too populated for anything unusual, but I genuinely disagree with that assessment based on what I've seen and heard out here.
What kind of property is it? Detached? Any woodland nearby? Really does change what explanations make sense. Would love to hear more detail from anyone else who's had similar experiences - particularly interested if there's a pattern emerging geographically.