In fact, Dave Holland and Liz Robb say they watched the black panther-like creature for almost half and hour.

There have been a string of recent sightings of the notorious beast and one man claimed he saw the creature with a young cub in Aislaby

Dave and Liz, from Sheffield, had been staying in Hinderwell and took a trip out to the Danby Moors Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

At around 3pm they were walking from the centre to Danby Castle Farm when they saw the beast about 200 metres away.

Dave (54) told the Gazette: "I could just see this black thing in the distance and my first instinct was that it was a dog. But because of its size and shape, Liz thought it was a sheep.

"I looked through my binoculars and it certainly wasn't either. It was black, with yellow eyes and walked like a panther. It looked like it had something in its mouth and it settled down while we watched it for about 30 minutes. We tried to get as close as we could. It was watching us then it got up and walked off into the bushes."

Dave and Liz then went back to the Danby Moors Centre to tell people what they had seen.

Have you seen the Beast of the Bay? Contact the news team on (01947) 829911 or email editorial@whitbygazette.co.uk



l YOU can see an interactive map of previous sightings of the beast. Just click here to be taken to the section