Boring facts

Having visited the Oregon town of Boring, I was intrigued to read about the proposal to form a link with the Perthshire village of Dull (your report, 26 April). Of course, neither place lays any claim to being as colourless as its name suggests.

Boring is named after an early resident, William H Boring, who moved there after being invalided out of the Union army in the Civil War. He can’t have been too severely hurt as he lasted till 1932 at the age of 91.

According to Professor Watson in his 1916 Rhind lectures, Perthshire’s Dull owes its name to the same origins as the modern Gaelic word “dail” – a meadow or field (inter alia).

Perhaps what the places do have in common is their proximity to beautiful scenery: Boring to Mount Hood and Hood River’s extensive orchards, Dull to the glories of Perthshire.

Douglas Hood

Kaimes Road

Edinburgh