Local professional artist Peter Drewett (52), Inverichnie, spotted the enigmatic black cat near his home in the Montcoffer area outside Banff just before dusk last Wednesday.

He did not have a chance to capture the animal on camera, but so thrilled was he by the sighting, that he got up in the middle of the night to make a life-sized cardboard replica of the beast.

Mr Drewett told the Journal that he spotted the creature at around 4.45pm last Wednesday, and quickly dispelled his first inclination that it might be a large, black fox or dog.

He described the cat as being around a metre in length and completely black, with no other markings.

He later measured the distance to the spot where he saw the animal.

He said: "I had a very good sighting of the cat, which was about 65 feet away from me.

"At first I thought it was a large black fox, but that thought only lasted about a nanosecond.

"I am used to painting wildlife, and this was definitely a cat. It was about three feet long, and I would say it was about six or seven times the size of the domestic cat I used to have.

"It had such distinctive movement, lithe and supple as it slunk away through the grass.

"It slipped through a fence and bounded across the field till it was out of sight.

Letting the cat out of the bag? Local artist Peter Drewett displays his latest work – a cardboard model of the alleged Beast of Banff, which he saw in fields near his Montcoffer home last Wednesday.

"It was beautiful, just incredible. I only wish I'd had a longer sighting and had my camera handy."

Mr Drewett could not get the image of the beast out of his head, and that same night he felt he had to make a lasting record of the creature he saw crossing the fields.

He said: "I couldn't sleep that night, so I got out of bed and made a cardboard cutout of what I think I saw.

"I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I'll leave it in the garden for a while to grab people's attention."

Mr Drewett has been a professional artist for 28 years and specialises in Scottish landscapes. He has mounted exhibitions in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Spain, America and Japan.

There have been numerous sightings of the alleged Beast of Banff over the past few years.

It was most recently spotted near Whitehills last November, when no fewer than six people claim to have seen it running across a field to the west of the village.

A walker's close encounter with the beast hit the headlines in 2007, leading to a spate of other sightings being made public.

One reader even famously managed to capture video footage of the animal near Cornhill.

Local opinion was split when the Banffshire Journal posted the video on its website.

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