A Victorian-era bridge located on the grounds of Overton House near Dumbarton, Scotland, has had a notorious reputation for decades as a place where dogs go mad and leap off the bridge, often to their demise.
The bridge stands about 15 meters high and outwardly appears innocuous; it is a beautiful and still sturdy old bridge that locals enjoy strolling across. Beneath it lies only a overgrown ravine, with no ancient crypts or anything of the sort.
However, once dogs find themselves on the bridge, they seem to fall under some sort of mental control. They slip out of their leashes, rush to the bridge’s edge, and… leap off. And those dogs who survive the fall and later return to the bridge may jump off again.
It is estimated that around 600 dogs (!) have plummeted from the bridge since the 1950s. However, dogs had been jumping before then; it’s just that official tallies weren’t kept back then because the bridge wasn’t yet in the newspapers.
In 2014, a three-year-old spaniel named Cassie jumped from the bridge and narrowly survived the fall with severe injuries.
“We had just gotten out of the car, and Cassie immediately ran to the bridge. Usually, she loves her ball and typically stands and waits for me to throw it, so this behavior was very uncharacteristic for her. Then she turned her head, looked up, and… jumped.
I’ll never forget the awful howl she let out as she leaped off the bridge. My son looked down from the bridge and saw a little wriggling dot below. Cassie managed to get up, but she collapsed upon seeing my son. How she survived that, I’ll never know,” recounts Alice Trevorrow, Cassie’s owner.
The inexplicable behavior of dogs at the “Bridge of Dog Suicides” has drawn worldwide attention for many years, with many wanting to unravel the mystery of this bridge. Numerous theories have been proposed, one of which suggests that dogs jump out of fear of a woman’s ghost.
In the early 20th century, the then-owner of Overton House passed away, and his wife was so distraught that she died soon after. After that, people began regularly seeing the ghost of a woman in white, including on this bridge. Supposedly, it is she who, for some inexplicable reason, bewitches dogs and compels them to jump from the bridge.
Current owners of Overton House, Bob and Melissa Hill, told journalists in 2019 that in the 17 years they’ve lived in this house, they have seen several dogs on the bridge behaving strangely and then jumping off.
Bob believes there’s nothing mystical about it. He thinks that small woodland creatures like squirrels or weasels are constantly running around in the undergrowth beneath the bridge, and dogs smell them, then jump in an attempt to catch these critters.
Another theory suggests that the granite stones from which the bridge is constructed emit vibrating sounds at a frequency audible only to animals.
Dogs are the most common animals to appear on the bridge when local residents walk their pets. Dogs sense this vibration and become nervous, losing control of their behavior.
Regardless, special signs have long been installed on the bridge, urging dog owners not to unleash their pets when passing through this area.
