Overtoun House

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Overtoun House
Ceiling decoration in the Angel Room

Overtoun House is a manor house near the Scottish town of Milton in the council area of West Dunbartonshire . In 1971 the building was included in the Scottish List of Monuments in the highest category A.

history

The lands belonged to the Colquhoun clan at the beginning of the 2nd millennium . He sold them to an unknown person in the 14th century. In 1761 Gabriel Lang from Greenock acquired the property and set up a cattle farm there. In the 19th century, the industrialist James White , who later became Lord Overtoun from Rutherglen , bought the property and expanded the area to 2000  acres (around 800  hectares ). The Glasgow architect James Smith was hired for the Overtoun House, which was built between 1860 and 1863 . In 1939 the City of Dumbarton acquired the property. Overtoun House was a military hospital during World War II and remained a civilian hospital until 1970. After the manor house served various purposes in the following years, it has been leased to a Christian institution since 2001.

description

Overtoun House is isolated approximately 1.5 km northwest of Milton and northeast of Dumbarton. It is built on a slight slope and consists of two- and three-story building sections with a five-story tower with a square floor plan. The asymmetrical mansion , built in the style of the Scottish Baronials , is extremely detailed. The roofs are covered with slate shingles. Statues can be found both inside the house and in the surrounding park, including two marble statues by the Roman artist Giovanni Batista Lombardi and two busts by John Warrington Wood .

Overtoun Bridge

Overtoun Bridge

The Overtoun Bridge is a bridge on one of the access roads to Overtoun House (Location: 55 ° 57 ′ 9.6 ″  N , 4 ° 31 ′ 31 ″  W ). The granite bridge over the Overtoun Burn stream, dating from 1895, is classified as a category B monument. From this 15 m high bridge, dogs often jumped spontaneously over the parapet for an initially inexplicable drive and often died. Since the 1950s, an average of one animal per year has died there; once even five dogs within half a year, which is why the bridge was considered cursed. It was noticeable that most of the animals jumped at the same place, that this always took place on sunny days and that many of the animals had long snouts. Even one animal that survived the fall tried to jump over the parapet again as part of an investigation at the same location. In 1994 a man threw his baby from the bridge to its death because he thought he was the Antichrist . A short time later he tried to kill himself by jumping. Comprehensive investigations finally clarified the reason for the dogs' impulsive action in 2006. They reacted strongly to glandular secretions from minks that nested below the bridge. These animals have only been native to Scotland since the 1950s. Their secretion is only found in sufficient concentration in the air on sunny days. Mice and squirrels also nested below the structure.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  2. ^ History of Overtoun House ( Memento from January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  4. ^ Daily Mail: Why have so many dogs leapt to their deaths from Overtoun Bridge? , October 17, 2006

Web links

Commons : Overtoun House  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 55 ° 57 '7.9 "  N , 4 ° 31' 28.7"  W.