THE well-known Dumbarton myth about the ‘dog suicide bridge’ has entered into the global public spotlight again this week.

International news outlets – including the USA’s Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, and The Sun – picked up the legendary local tale about the Overtoun Bridge, with a local author claiming a ghost has been up to foul play.

It has been reported that anywhere between 50 and 500 dogs have jumped 58ft to their death off the Victorian bridge in the past 70 years, in the shadow of Overtoun House, a 19th-century Baronial castle.

Most of the stories tell of the same tale - one minute the dog is seemingly happy and the next they jump off the bridge, from exactly the same spot between the final two parapets on one side of the bridge.

Bizarre explanations have been given for the incidents by canine behavioural experts, psychics, dog whisperers, local historians, and scientists.

Now, Paul Owens, a religion and philosophy teacher from Glasgow who grew up near the area, has written a book, The Rainbow Bridge: Unravelling the Secrets of Overtoun’s Dog Leaping Mystery.

He claims it was the ghost of Lady Overtoun that is responsible for all the deaths.

Mr Owens suggests Lady Overtoun, widow of Baron Overtoun, was a troubled woman who, after her husband’s death in 1908, roamed the grounds of their stately home night and day, often wandering grief-stricken across the bridge, looking for him in vain.

Over the years, her ‘white translucent figure’ has been spotted on numerous occasions, drifting about the grounds or peering from the castle windows, spooking out anyone who sees her.