Celtic Country

The first settlers to Glen Innes and the surrounding district of Severn Shire were mostly Scots, having arrived within the 50 years of “First Settlement”. The very first of the these was a Selkirkshire, Cambridge-educated barrister Archibald Boyd, who in 1838 took up what is now known as Stonehenge Station and holding a number of other properties in New England.

Boyd's party was guided to the area by bearded stockmen William Chandler and John Duval, who are celebrated today in the annual “Land of the Beardies Festival” and in the naming of the “Land of the Beardies History House”. Boyd went broke in the 1840 depression, returning home where he inherited the family estate and wrote historical romances.