(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Referring to a TV series’ or movie’s setting as another character from the project is an industry cliché. Thankfully, Outlander showrunner Matthew B. Roberts thought of a far more evocative label for the country that has been home to Starz’s historical fantasy drama for the last decade. “Scotland is number one on the call sheet; she plays so many things so well,” Roberts told The Daily Beast Obsessed.
Since Outlander’s debut in 2014, Scotland has successfully “played different continents, different cities, different countries, different timelines” as the series traversed centuries, Roberts said.
Adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling novels, the epic journey begins when WWII nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) is transported back to 1743 via ancient standing stones, gripping viewers with a love story that has survived the battlefield across two continents. Regardless of whether a scene across the series took place in the Highlands, North Carolina, or Versailles, Scotland provided the stunning backdrop and centuries-old architecture—with help from the country’s Wardpark Studios.
The Daily Beast Obsessed spent six days following in Claire and Jamie Fraser’s (Sam Heughan) footsteps, witnessing Outlander’s effect on tourism and the Scottish film industry in the process. After standing at the instantly recognizable landmarks and hidden gems from the show, I chatted with Roberts, executive producer Maril Davis, and production designer Mike Gunn about the Frasers’ highly anticipated homecoming in Friday night’s Season 7, Part 2 premiere, “Unfinished Business.”
Even by previously set standards of long breaks between new episodes, it has been a long Droughtlander. The first half of Season 7 concluded last summer, with Jamie, Claire, and their nephew, Young Ian Murray (John Bell), sailing from the American Revolution in the “New World” back to Scotland for the first time in around 20 years. “There’s a lot of trepidation as the three of them ride up that long driveway [to Lallybroch]. It’s a reunion they’re waiting for but also dreading,” Davis said. Walking up that same path to Lallybroch (or Midhope Castle, to use the real name of the building), the hairs on my arms stood on end. My transportation wasn’t a horse, and I snapped photos on my iPhone, but it took little imagination to conjure Midhope in its 18th-century heyday.
As with previous trips to Achill Island in the Republic of Ireland for Banshees of Inisherin and to Northern Ireland for a Dungeons & Dragons tour, the weather in Scotland offered an array of moody gray skies, light showers, and glorious sunshine. “Sometimes her winters were a little harsh, and her summers a little nonexistent, but it’s an amazing place to be,” Roberts said. It is all part of the fabric of the area, and even with these quirks, it doesn’t dampen his fondness for this country.
“It’s not just because of the locations; it’s also because of the people of Scotland. The Scots, I think when we first got there, we were just a bunch of sassenachs [Gaelic for Saxon and what Jamie calls Claire] bringing an American show over,” Roberts said. “Then over the course of just a few seasons, they opened their arms, their locations to us, and they welcomed us; it made shooting in Scotland so much easier. It’s a place I certainly call my second home because of that.”
There was a bit of a “choose your own adventure” feel to this trip, which emphasized the broad appeal of Scotland. I reconnected with my Scottish roots. I got to delight in big Traitors vibes at various stops on our journey, like Cameron House on Loch Lomond and Glenapp Castle, where I got to do a spot of archery. Climbing into a Land Rover Defender as part of the 4x4 Adventures experience through the fauna-filled misty hills looking down on Loch Lomond, roaming alongside the appropriately named jaw-dropping Loch Long (which is rather close to the nuclear weapons base that played a pivotal role in Season 2 of The Diplomat), and through babbling brooks also tapped into the impossible-to-shake Traitors' mood—the kilted adventure guides weren’t mimicking Alan Cumming’s heightened aesthetic, but the tartan hits the spot.
Similar to how Game of Thrones brought an influx of productions to Northern Ireland, the film and TV industry in Scotland has exploded since Outlander made the country its base of operations—in part because Outlander invested inward by setting up trainee programs for each department—and so has the number of visitors traveling to the same picturesque spots. “Fans want to go everywhere we go,” Outlander production designer Mike Gunn said.
Thankfully, unlike Claire, the production team didn’t have to go through the stone circle at Craigh na Dun to turn back the clock to the 18th century. Neither did I, as I took in the sweeping vistas and frozen-in-time sights—though, thankfully, without forgoing 21st-century comforts. A show-themed Rabbie’s guided tour emphasized the scale of the Outlander reach and allowed me to see where my ancestors lived and died. Well, not literally. Yes, I am a Fraser. No, I don’t actually think I am related to Jaime and Claire (no matter how often I joke about this connection).
Family and legacy are an Outlander signature, which, as the daughter of a proud Scotsman, gives an extra layer of enjoyment to the series. When my dad died in 2016, I wrote about my connection to the series and how it helped me feel closer to my military history buff father whose ashes we scattered at Cullodon (a battle that played a pivotal role in earlier seasons). Jamie’s homecoming in Friday’s premiere is a result of repatriating the body of his second cousin, Simon Fraser, who died in the American Revolution.
Fans will recognize Doune Castle as the medieval stronghold of the series’ Castle Leoch, which boasts an audio tour narrated by star Sam Heughan. You can listen to his dulcet tones describe BTS details, including learning Gaelic (as part of my immersion into Outlander, Àdhamh Ó Broin, who worked on four seasons as the Scottish Gaelic consultant, taught us useful Gaelic phrases over a whisky pairing dinner at Mharsanta the night before).
Visiting various centuries-old military fixtures revealed how different productions take advantage of the still-foreboding structures. Blackness Castle sits on the Firth of Forth and doubles as Mary’s (Saoirse Ronan) home, Linlithgow Palace, in the 2018 Mary Queen of Scots. Meanwhile, Outlander turns it into Fort William, where Jamie is tortured in Season 1. In an art-imitates-life moment, in the Season 2 finale, Jamie and Claire’s daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and her future husband, Roger (Richard Rankin), visit the tourist site in the late 1960s scenes. It doesn’t feel like you are stepping onto a set, but rather a slice of history.
Take Culross, which, as Cranesmuir, makes a surprise appearance at the end of Friday’s premiere. Before seeing the new episode, I was practically giddy walking up the enchanting Culross cobbled streets where antagonist Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek) resided in Season 1. Geillis hasn’t appeared since Season 3, so imagine my delight when she answered the knock on the door I had just been standing in front of myself. “[It] adds a little skip to our step seeing those familiar faces,” Davis said.
The picturesque village, with its traditional unicorn Mercat Cross, is a regular tour stop, posing challenges for filming. “Trying to keep that secret isn’t as easy as it used to be,” Davis said. Gunn echoed this sentiment while also noting that fans don’t want to be spoiled for future episodes: “They would ask things like, ‘How did you do that? What was your favorite place?’ They’re always retrospective questions. They were never inquiring questions.”
Midhope has a steady stream of visitors, but Gunn noted that he’s never encountered anyone unhappy with a cordoned-off attraction. Midhope gets jolted into the near-present in the first half of Season 7 when Brianna, Roger, and their two children return to the 20th century. Upon learning that Lallybroch is for sale, the couple leap at the chance to buy the property rather than return to Boston. In reality, only the Midhope exterior is used because the interior is not fit for filming—if only Roger and Brianna’s renovations were an HGTV project come to life.
For Gunn, the blast of modernity gave the production designer some scope to play with, especially when designing the caravan where the family temporarily resides“The minute you cut to the interior caravan, you know you’re in 1980 and not in 1780,” Gunn said.
Juggling two timelines is a piece of cake for the Outlander team, who have bounced between different centuries since the pilot. However, thanks to a kidnapping plot, Roger goes back to rescue his son Jemmy from what Roger thinks is the same year as Claire and Jamie, but instead, he wakes up four decades earlier. (It all is less confusing when you watch, I swear.) Roger doesn’t immediately realize it is an earlier timeline, as 1739 looks a lot like 1778. “Because Midhope is Midhope. It hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. That’s the thing about Scottish castles; they’re pretty much the same 300 years ago, 400 years ago, as they are now,” Roberts said.
Lallybroch is an anchor to Jamie, Claire, and the series, so seeing it in real life felt extra special. The Midhope Castle undoubtedly has untold stories within its walls. Now, the derelict building has taken on a second life as visitors from across the globe make the pilgrimage to see it, and will no doubt continue to even when Outlander concludes with the recently wrapped eighth and final season.
“Each time I physically go to one of those places, there’s a magic not only of the place but the light and all the memories,” Roberts said. It is a layered confection that pairs Scottish history and scenic natural beauty with Outlander’s unshakable affection for this part of the world and the people. The lasting impact of Jamie and Claire’s love story and the series' legacy is visible on and off-screen. “It engenders so many amazing memories that I’ll carry for the rest of my life,” says Roberts. “That’s what Scotland does, and that’s what I think the show does.”
