AT A GLANCE

• The town of Boring in Oregon, USA, teamed up with the village of Dull in Scotland in 2012 as a tourism initiative.

• In 2013, Bland Shire in Australia joined the friendship grouping to become the Trinity of Tedium.

• English cyclist Mark Wedgwood cycled from Oregon in the US to Dull in Scotland to mark the 10th anniversary of the group coming together. 

• You can have a selfie taken with a sign at the Lions Park in Bland, New South Wales that reads: ‘League of Extraordinary Communities. Bland… far from Dull and Boring’.

It’s been ten years since Bland Shire in New South Wales, Australia, teamed up with Dull in Scotland and Boring in Oregon, USA, to form the Trinity of Tedium.

In 2012, the town of Boring in Oregon, US, voted to cement a relationship with the Perth and Kinross village of Dull in ‘a pair for the ages’. Bland was accepted into the alliance in 2013. Bland and Boring are both named after early residents of the area – William Bland and William Boring – and Dull is believed to have got its name from the Pictish word for field.

August 9th every year marks the annual Bland, Dull and Boring Day, when all three celebrate the anniversary of their alliance. To mark  the 10th anniversary, a British cyclist went on a quest to ride from Boring to Dull. 

Mark Wedgwood from Manchester, England, was in Boring, Oregon for the anniversary day, and as part of the festivities, he left on his bicycle, bound for Dull, Scotland. He crossed the US to Boston, then transported to Iceland, cycled across Iceland, then transported to the Faroe Islands. He cycled across the Faroe Islands and got transport to Scotland’s mainland, reaching Dull right on schedule on October 12th. That day marked the 10th anniversary of when a group of nine Boring residents first visited Dull and celebrated the first, unofficial Boring and Dull Day in Scotland.

Mark said on his trip website, boringtodull.com: “What better time, then, to be arriving at the culmination of my long and almost certainly unique cycling adventure. We had 22 miles left to go and a fine, if rather cool Scottish morning in which to enjoy the magnificent scenery.

“And then, suddenly, there it was by the roadside: the ‘Welcome to Dull, Paired with Boring, Oregon, USA’ sign.”

He added: “We climbed off our bikes, a grey haired man with a fine moustache called to us across the car park. It was Tommy, lifelong Dull resident and my best and only contact here. We went inside the cosy cafe and he treated us to coffee, soup and herb scones. Then we chatted at length about Boring and Dull, how the pairing came about, visitors from overseas and other amusing stories.” 

Bland, which was originally a gold mining area, has a 6,000-strong population. It has a sign located in Lions Park representing the three communities in a fun selfie frame. You can snap a photo with the sign and post on your social media using #blandnotdullorboring.

*This story was first published in the November 2023 edition of Anglo&Celtic magazine.