The Dog Suicide Bridge

Overtoun House is near Milton in West Dunbartonshire in Scotland. It was built between 1859 and 1863 and has a bridge leading towards it. Overtoun Bridge was built in 1859 and was used for mainly transporting materials from and to the house. In 1994, a mentally disturbed man by the name of Keven Moy, dropped his two week old baby off the 15 meter high bridge because he believe the baby was the reincarnation of the Devil. Moy then tried killing himself by jumping off the bridge but he failed. He tried cutting his wrists later but this failed as well. He has been admitted into a mental asylum ever since.

Some believe the bridge to be haunted but the strange thing is, in the past 50 years, more than 50 dogs have leaped to their deaths off the bridge. Overtoun Bridge is nicknamed "Dog Suicide Bridge". In 2005, 5 dogs leaped to their deaths in less than a 6 month period and to make it even more strange, all dogs jumped from the same spot, on the same side of the bridge. There is obviously some urge for them to do this.

There are many theories as to why this is happening. In the Celtic Mythology, Overtoun Bridge is the spot on earth where heaven and earth are closest together. Because dogs are more sensitive in picking up certain vibrations that gives then the extreme urge to jump off the bridge. Dog experts have been looking into this phenomenon as well.

Dr David Sands was able to exclude the elements of 'sight' and 'sound' fairly quickly, and he concentrated on 'sent'.
Dogs have a much better smell than humans, we all know that. Under the bridge, 15 meters below, mice, squirrels and mink live. And he thinks the mink is the culprit here. Sands has experimented with dogs on open fields. He used mink urine in his experiment. All long-nosed dogs immediately went crazy. But, according to local hunter John Joyce, there hasn’t been one single mink in the whole area for years.

A photo of the house was released showing a ghostly figure in the window. Perhaps this ghost encourages dogs to jump? Walkers are now told to keep their dogs on leashes.