The Outlander love story boosts visitor numbers

Fans of the hit television series Outlander helped to push tourist numbers at Scotland’s historic castles past the five million mark for the first time last year. Our Outlander set locations tour features visits to Doune Castle , Blackness Castle and Linlithgow Palace.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said that people had come from across the world to see sites associated with the time-travel fantasy starring Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe . It said that the “Outlander effect” had led to a 27 per cent increase in tourists from the US and a 19 per cent increase in those coming from France compared with the previous year.

Visitor numbers to Doune Castle, the location for the fictional Castle Leoch, are up by 227 per cent since 2013, when Outlander was first screened. The 15th-century Blackness Castle in West Lothian, the setting for the Tv series has seen a huge rise in visitor numbers .

Stephen Duncan, Director of Commercial and Tourism at HES, said: “Our record breaking visitor figures, including across all of our top ten sites, are a tremendous achievement for Scotland’s heritage tourism sector, reflecting the continued interest shown by tourists and home-grown visitors to learn more about our rich Scottish heritage.

“The exchange rate, as well as strong airport numbers, have both contributed to the growing figures.

“This rise in visitor numbers at our staffed sites has also been complemented by visitor growth at our unstaffed free access properties, bringing the overall total to an estimated 12 million.”

The top 10 most-visited HES attractions all individually celebrated record-breaking years, with over 2 million people passing over Edinburgh Castle’s drawbridge, an increase of nearly 300,000 visitors in comparison to the previous year.