Bothwell, named after a town in Scotland, was settled in the early 1820s by early settlers who had taken up ;and along the banks of the Clyde River.

It is widely accepted that the first European settler into the area was Edward Nicholas who arrived in 1821 and built Nant's Cottage, about 1.5 km from the town centre on Denistoun Road. It was used by the Irish political exiles, John Mitchell and John Martin, during their stay in Tasmania in the 1850s. Both had been arrested for treasonable writings with Mitchell writing in The United Irishman and Martin in The Irish Felon.

The town's most interesting historic buildings include Thorpe Watermill (out near Nant's Cottage), a brick flour mill powered by water which was built by Thomas Axford in the early 1820s. It operated for seventy years, was closed down, and was restored in the mid 1970s.

The Ratho Links is recognised as Australia's oldest golf course, and is the oldest known golf course, still existing outside of Scotland. The course was laid in the mid-1830s. This is a unique golfing experience - a course with square putting greens and fairways maintained by grazing sheep.

The Australasian Golf Museum is located in the heart of Bothwell in a rural environment. It houses the most comprehensive collection of golfing memorabilia in the Southern Hemisphere including icons of Australian men and women champions and antique hickory woods.

True to its Scottish heritage Bothwell has one of Australia's top whiskey distilleries, Nant Distillery where visitors can sample the fine single malt whiskeys made using pure local Highland waters.

Bothwell is also home to the International Highland Spin-in, a wool spinning competition marking the town's agricultural heritage.

Walking round the town is to walk back in time - more than 50 colonial cottages, houses and official buildings (the town’s first library opened in 1837) cluster around the trees and grass of Queens Park.