Scotland’s a funny old place. A land where the C-word is used as a term of endearment,
where an offal-filled sack made of sheep stomach
is considered a great delicacy, and where the national animal doesn't even exist.
Those who venture north of the wall - Hadrian's Wall that is - will find
themselves in a land of crumbling castles, mist-shrouded valleys, and murky lochs
where large shapes shift beneath the surface of the inky water. What they might also find, if
they were to make a small detour to the village of Milton just outside of Dumbarton, is a mysterious,
gothic bridge where dogs keep trying to kill themselves for reasons nobody can explain.
Owners describe their dogs freezing on the spot midway across this particular bridge before
apparently being possessed by some kind of strange energy that compels them to leap to their deaths.
That may sound quite hard to believe. But this isn't just some Scottish fairytale born out of
boredom and too much single malt whiskey. The strange goings on at Overtoun Bridge are a matter
of public record - mysterious doggy suicides have been reported there since the 1950s, and the
story has featured in several major news outlets including the Independent and the New York Times.
So, just what the hell is going on here?
Built in 1862 by wealthy lawyer and businessman James White, Overtoun House is a grand old place.
You might actually have already heard of it - or at least already seen it - it was used in
the filming of Cloud Atlas, a film based on the book of the same name by British author David
Mitchell. The Bridge was a later addition, built in 1895 to connect the original estate
with a newly acquired patch of land on the other side of a gully carved out by the Overtoun burn.
To the untrained eye, Overtoun Bridge looks pretty normal. Actually, it looks pretty normal to the
trained eye, too. But clearly our canine friends are seeing something we aren't. Because according
to some sources, as many as *600* dogs have inexplicably jumped off Overtoun Bridge over the
last 70 years or so, leading to at least 50 doggy fatalities and a small army of traumatised owners.
The question is - why do they jump?
Considering what I've just told you, you won't be surprised to learn that Overtoun Bridge
has earned itself the highly creative nickname of 'Dog Suicide Bridge.' But are these dogs
really deliberately trying to end their own lives?
The short answer is... probably not. Scientists aren't actually sure it's even possible for
animals to commit suicide. Plenty of species exhibit self-destructive behaviours - Malaysian
Worker Ants literally blow themselves up when their colony comes under threat,
honey bees die when they use their sting on any animal with relatively thick skin,
and there are plenty of stories of dogs starving themselves to death after their owner dies.
But while all of those examples may sound quite a lot like suicide, there's one key aspect of each
that's hard to assess - intent. When a Malaysian Worker Ant goes nuclear in the general direction
of its foes, it's probably acting on instinct rather than some kind of utilitarian belief in
nobly sacrificing itself for the greater good, and the same goes for honey bees and their stings.
Even when it comes to higher animals things are far from clear - does the dog who stops
eating when his owner dies know that doing so will result in its death? Or is not eating simply an
instinctive reaction to extreme stress? Nobody knows for sure, and without the intent to die,
seemingly suicidal behaviour isn’t actually suicide - at least not in a technical sense.
The good news is, we probably don't have to worry too much about wrestling with the philosophical,
scientific, and linguistic complexities of the Overtoun Bridge case. After all,
it does seem quite unlikely that all the suicidal dogs in Britain just happen to live in and around
the village Milton in southwest Scotland. Not to mention the fact that if self destruction
really was the aim here, you'd think the dogs might have thought to choose a more suitable
location - Overtoun Bridge is only about 15 metres high, and the majority of dogs survive the ordeal.
But whatever the motive, the dogs are definitely jumping. So if not suicide, what?
This being Scotland (which as I've already mentioned is a decidedly magical place by
all accounts), plenty of people have considered, shall we say, *unconventional* explanations. Some
claim Overtoun Bridge spans a so-called 'thin place' where different realities bleed into
our own, something our canine companions apparently aren’t big fans of. Others put the
dog deaths down to mischievous spirits, usually the conveniently local White Lady of Overtoun,
the ghost of a woman who lived alone in Overtoun house for 30 years after the death of her husband.
The minor issue with both these theories, of course, is that they're absolutely ridiculous.
I mean seriously - whatever your beliefs relating to all things supernatural, it seems
a bit of a stretch that it was a mass-murdering ghostly dog-hater behind the mystery all along.
One theory that briefly seemed promising was that some kind of
ultrasonic sound - something only dogs could hear - was to blame. The UK's
Trident nuclear-powered submarines are housed in the naval base at nearby Faslane Bay,
and it was thought that perhaps this mystery noise came from somewhere over in that direction.
But acoustic experts have ruled this one out after extensive testing at the bridge.
The truth is, to this day, nobody knows for sure what exactly is going on at Overtoun Bridge.
The whole thing really is a genuine unsolved mystery... but there is one theory that does
a pretty good job of explaining all the peculiarities of the case. Well,
*almost* all of them, but I'll get to that bit a minute.
First, we need to examine a few important clues.
Clue number one - Overtoun Bridge spans a steep
gorge and is surrounded with high vegetation on all sides.
Clue number two - Being part of a lovely country estate in Scotland,
the area is teeming with local wildlife, including mice, squirrels, and most importantly - mink.
Clue number three - the walls that run the length of the bridge are made
of solid stone, and the top sections taper ever-so-slightly down towards the drop below.
So... any ideas? If you've figured it out already then congratulations - you’re
basically the Jonathan Creek of the dog world. If not, then let me give you another clue...
Have you ever seen one of those memes where some unsuspecting guy jumps into what looks to
be a small puddle, only to be buried over his head in a deep pool of muddy water?
That sort of thing happens when our senses trick us into thinking one thing,
when the reality of the situation is very different.
And it may be that - from a dog's perspective - Overtoun Bridge works a little bit like that.
Because the key to this little mystery lies in the unique way that dogs perceive the world.
As you're no doubt aware, dogs have a quite remarkable sense of smell.
We humans have roughly 6 million olfactory receptors in our noses to help us smell the
world around us. Dogs, on the other hand, have around *300* million. Not only that, but they
dedicate about 40% more of their total brainpower to processing smells than humans do. As a result,
the average dog has a sense of smell that's up to 100,000 times more accurate than our own.
When strolling across Overtoun Bridge, a human might notice a few faint earthy scents wafting in
from the nearby fields, but a dog making that same crossing would experience a veritable explosion
of complex smells - the scents left behind by other dogs, food cooking up at Overtoun house,
dust drifting down off the old stones of the bridge. But above all of that olfactory noise,
to a dog, one smell would stick out above all others - the delicious, sweet, irresistible scent…
of mink piss. Because it turns out dogs go absolutely bonkers for the stuff.
Remember how I mentioned that multiple dog owners have described their canine companions
suddenly stopping while crossing Overtoun Bridge before a malicious energy compels them to jump?
That behaviour sounds undeniably creepy when viewed through the lens of dogs mysteriously
killing themselves. But switch up the context and it’s actually perfectly normal. Anyone who's
ever owned a dog will be familiar with the sight of their beloved pet pausing briefly while out
on a walk before suddenly pelting off into the undergrowth after some unseen animal or other.
It may simply be that dogs crossing Overtoun Bridge are picking up on the scent of the
nearby mink and bolting off to go try and murder them. That might not sound like a
particularly convincing explanation to begin with - why don’t the dogs just walk down into
the gorge the old fashioned way? But here's where Overtoun Bridge's unusual layout comes into play.
As per clue number three, the walls that run along the sides of the bridge are made from solid,
unbroken stone. From a human perspective that detail is essentially irrelevant, but for dogs,
whose eyes are set much closer to the ground - it's crucial. In combination with all the
high vegetation that surrounds the bridge on all sides, you’re left with a kind of dog's-eye-view
optical illusion that tricks passing canines into thinking they’re walking alongside a regular wall
with solid ground on the other side rather than a precipitous 15 metre drop.
The fact that the top of the wall is tapered slightly downwards
is the final nail in the coffin, because it makes it that much harder for a dog
jumping up onto the wall to arrest its momentum
when its eyes deliver the bad news that the ground is 15 metres further away than expected.
It's a neat little theory that's made even more convincing by the fact that
mink are thought to have first arrived in the area in the 1950s,
right around the time the first doggy deaths were reported...
There is one minor problem though.
Think about it. There are thousands of bridges in Scotland, and God knows how many tens of thousands
across the UK. So why is this only happening at Overtoun? Plenty of other bridges are lined with
solid walls, and high vegetation isn't exactly uncommon in this green and pleasant land. Mink
are admittedly non native to these shores having come here from fur farms in the US in the first
half of the twentieth century. But it's safe to say the invasion has been a resounding success,
because as of today you can find the smelly buggers pretty much everywhere. Combine that
with the fact that around a third of British households are home to at least one dog and it
becomes very hard to believe that the conditions at Overtoun Bridge aren’t to be found anywhere
else in the country. And yet… only at Overtoun are dogs leaping to their deaths in large numbers.
Until someone can explain that little conundrum, it’s hard to say for sure that the whole
‘stinky mink optical illusion’ theory is accurate.
We probably need to come up with a better name for it.
OK, one final twist to this strange tale before I leave you. And, fair warning - this part is
pretty unpleasant. You see, it turns out that it isn’t only dogs that have fallen to their deaths
from Overtoun Bridge. In 1994, a young father threw his infant son from the bridge after
becoming convinced the child was an incarnation of the devil. Tragically, the fall proved fatal.
To this day, plenty of people report feeling a strange sense of foreboding when crossing
Overtoun Bridge. Not just tin foil hat types either - even a few sceptics have confessed to
feeling a little uncomfortable there for reasons they can’t entirely explain. Is that the result
of the bridge’s sinister reputation getting to work on their subconscious minds? Or did I
dismiss those 'unconventional' theories a little too soon? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Thanks for watching.