Elizabeth Leighton of Aberfeldy, Scotland proposed a pairing of the Scottish town of Dull while passing through Boring, Oregon on a cycling holiday. Boring has a population of 12,000. Dull has a population of about 84.
During 2013, Dull entered into another partnership with the Australian town Bland. Seems the residents of Bland Shire in New South Wales want to cash in on humorous publicity by creating a trinity with Dull and Boring. Bland has a population of about 6,000.
Dull's name is thought to have come from the Gaelic word for meadow, but others have speculated it could be connected to the Gaelic word "dul" meaning snare. Bland was named after William Bland, the first person in the Australian Medical Association and was transported to Australia as a convict after he killed a man in a duel in Bombay. Boring was named after one of its first residents, W.H. Boring, a farmer and Union veteran who moved to Oregon after the Civil War.