Since the 1950s, dogs have jumped from the same few feet of Overtoun Bridge, 15 meters above the burn: estimates run from 50 confirmed fatalities to over 300 incidents, some survivors returning to jump again. The clustering is specific: clear, dry days; the last stones of the right-hand side; overwhelmingly long-nosed scent breeds, collies, retrievers, spaniels. The 1994 tragedy, a father throwing his infant from the bridge, feeds the paranormal frame, as does the White Lady of Overtoun.
Animal behaviourist David Sands's 2010 SPCA investigation: the breeds implicated scent, not sight; the stonework beneath the favoured side held mice, squirrels, and American mink, introduced to Scotland in the 1950s, the decade the jumps began; mink anal secretion is among the most pungent mammal scents in Britain; and in controlled tests, seven of ten long-nosed dogs went dramatically for the mink canister. The parapet hides the drop until the dog is on top of it. A hunting nose catches the thread, the wall hides the cliff, the dog commits.
The claim: mink scent is the mechanism but not the whole machine, mink live under countless Scottish bridges and only Overtoun produces the phenomenon, so the bridge is a coincidence-engine where parapet height, gorge geometry, and scent thermals align; the paranormal story persists because coincidence-engines are indistinguishable from curses from inside. Verdict: honest incompleteness is the correct file state. The archive's lesson: a real pattern, a strong explanation, and a residue that will not close, which is exactly what an anomaly looks like before it either solves or ossifies into legend. Keep the leash on.
If mink live under every Scottish bridge, why does only this one collect dogs?