Dull and Bland celebration is far from Boring

Dull, Bland and Boring might sound like a bad TripAdvisor review, but a Scottish village and its Australian and American counterparts are turning the unexciting names to their advantage.

After forging a link with Boring, Oregon in 2012, Dull will welcome the Mayor of Bland Shire at a civic reception in Aberfeldy.

The Highland Perthshire hamlet has become a tourist attraction after a 10ft sign announcing the Boring pairing was erected in 2013.

Local councillor Ian Campbell is promising a far from dull reception for the mayor and his New South Wales delegation.

He said: "Hopefully we are going to put him in a Land Rover and whisk him up through Dull and take him up to the hills above, so he can get a good view over the valley.

"There will be a lot of locals there to wish him well."

Dull's name is believed to have come from the Gaelic word for meadow.

Others have speculated it could be connected to the Gaelic word "dul", meaning snare.

Bland is named after William Bland, a medical practitioner and politician, who was transported from the UK to Tasmania in 1814 after being convicted of manslaughter.

The seeds of the visit were sown in 2013 when the three locations informally hailed themselves as the League of Extraordinary Communities.

Speaking at the time, Mayor of Bland Shire Neil Pokoney said: "Dull and Boring basically have a tourism relationship.

"We heard about it and thought it would be even better if it became Bland, Dull and Boring.

"It's good for us to be able to take a light-hearted look at a name that many would see to be a weight around our necks."

Mr Campbell said the renewed media focus on the village was "absolutely superb", with the 80 or so locals "loving the attention."

He said: "It puts Dull on the map as far as they're concerned.

"Many of the people in Dull have been across and visited folks in Boring in Oregon.

"People from Boring regularly turn up in the village and are pleased to be here.

"You get a constant procession of people stopping with cars to get their photographs taken.

"It's a bit like visiting a sight that you see on the telly."

Dennis Melloy, Provost of Perth and Kinross, told BBC Radio Scotland: "These pairings - Dull, Boring and Bland - are just wonderful for the tourism and the economy but I think the most important part is the forging of links and the joining of hands across the seas.

"Everything is organised and arranged by just ordinary people, living normal lives, who get that feel-good factor from living within their vibrant communities that just happen to have quirky, dull names."