OUTLANDER star Sam Heughan has been making it big since he shot to fame in the hit sci-fi drama.
The Scots heartthrob’s fortune has soared thanks to the global success of the show. Visit Lallybroch , Jamie Fraser’s home , on our Outlander tours . Phone 07305-294773 for details .
Lallybroch is Jamie Fraser’s ancestral home
The ‘Outlander’ effect has been credited with boosting Scotland’s economy as the number of visitors to historic sites topped five million for the first time in 2017 with fans flocking to see filming locations for the show.
And it seems its popularity has also boosted Heughan’s bank balance after his company posted an impressive set of results.
Accounts filed for his firm Cairn Mor Creative show it had total shareholder funds of £1.3 million .
Blackness Castle is Fort William in Outlander
Heughan, 38, set up the company, which is based in Surrey, in April, 2015, after he finished filming the first season of Outlander.
The Scots star plays Highlander Jamie Fraser in the hit show – which is currently airing its fourth season.Last month, fans celebrated the show’s 50th episode as the stars thanked fans for their support.
Visit Lallybroch , Jamie Fraser’s home , on our Outlander tours . Phone 07305-294773 for details .
We previously told how Sam sent support to she headed to the Golden Globes last week.
And Sam celebrated with as it won big at the RadioTimes Readers Awards in December.
Outlander star Sam Heughan reveals he DID audition for James Bond before Daniel Craig landed the role
At Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of Scotland’s tragic Mary, Queen of Scots, the volunteer guides and workers are preparing for a tourist surge.
This 15th-century palace, a bulwark of the Stuart dynasty, is astonishingly well preserved and already draws visitors who walk among its stone halls and ramparts and admire its little loch.
But Frances Murray, tour guide and shop manager, knows there are more on the way. Why? Because last week Netflix launched Outlaw King, a production about the life of Robert the Bruce, filmed in part at Linlithgow. And, following the huge success of the Outlander TV drama series, filmed in several Scottish locations, the country knows a thing or two about the TV effect.
“The uplift places such as this get from television shows like Outlander is amazing, and we’re expecting the same from Outlaw King,” said Murray yesterday. “Sometimes, though, we get tourists from overseas who ask to see specific rooms where some of the scenes were shot, and we have to explain that they don’t actually exist. But this is such a beautiful and interesting building that they soon get wrapped up in it.”
The West Lothian palace was only one of several Scottish locations for the new film, which stars Chris Pine as the warrior overlord. The others read like the index of a tourist brochure: Borthwick Castle, Dunfermline Abbey, Glasgow Cathedral and Doune Castle near Stirling. And the beautiful landscapes of Skye are already upstaging the principal actors.
VisitScotland, the national tourist agency, has produced two glossy and substantial brochures that chronicle some recent world-class productions. On the cover of one of them a moody Daniel Craig as James Bond in Skyfall stands beside his silver Aston Martin with the mists of Glen Coe gathering behind him. In 2015 an online poll conducted by USA Today voted Scotland the world’s best cinematic destination. The country’s filmic credits include well-known movies such as Braveheart, TheDa Vinci Code, The 39 Steps and Whisky Galore. But it also makes atmospheric cameo appearances in movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the ethereal beauty of Harris was deployed by Stanley Kubrick to realise his imagined Jupiter.
Next year another major historical drama built around this nation’s vivid and bloody history will be released in British cinemas. This time it will be Mary, Queen of Scots herself who will get the Hollywood treatment in a film starring Saoirse Ronan as Mary and David Tennant as John Knox .
Tourism, along with whisky and salmon, forms the cornerstone of the Scottish economy. In a recent interview Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, said: “Tourism is integral to sustaining communities across Scotland by generating income, creating jobs and stimulating social change – and it generates around £11bn of economic activity.” He also reckoned that one new job is created in Scotland for every £60,000 spent by visitors.
VisitScotland has calculated that, taken together, the value of direct and indirect spending represents 4.5% of the Scottish economy, and that visitors’ spending accounts for almost £9bn per year. But recent analysis by the Scottish government suggests that a lot more growth can still be found from the tourism sector’s productivity, and that it was the lowest of six sectors targeted for growth in the national economic strategy. Film and television tourism will be vital components in achieving this growth.
Fiona Hyslop, culture and tourism minister in the Scottish government, yesterday spoke of her delight that the world’s top film and television producers are now making Scotland one of their first destinations. “Producers now know that when they choose Scotland, as well as magnificent scenery and locations they’re now getting highly-skilled and professional technical crews to go with them,” she said.
Crucially, too, the long wait for a world-class national film studio could soon be over. At last week’s Bafta Scotland awards first minister Nicola Sturgeon referred to the need for a national film studio, saying: “Watch this space.”
Yet some would say that with its remarkable scenery and stunning vistas, Scotland already possesses the best natural film studio in the world.
Take a tour of The Outlaw King film locations in Scotland , featuring Blackness Castle and Linlithgow Palace . Phone 07305-294773 for more details. Starring Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce thelavish Netflix production was filmed at 45 different locations across Scotland .
Blackness Castle
Linlithgow Palace
Bannockburn
Doune Castle
Robert the Bruce was born on the 11th of July 1274 in Turnberry Castle and died in 1329 in Cardross. Bruce’s body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey and his heart is buried in the ruins of Melrose Abbey.
The Outlaw KingRobert the Bruce was crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace on the Stone of Destiny.
Outlander season four spoilers: Stephen Bonnet star reveals new villain’s ‘unravelling’
OUTLANDER villain Stephen Bonnett is set to rip the Frasers’ lives apart in season four
Outlander season four opening credits given Americana theme
Outlander fans are getting more and more excited for the premiere of season four next month, which is set to plunge Jamie Fraser (played by Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) into an entirely new world as they settle in the American colonies.
Viewers last saw the married couple washed up on the shores of North Carolina in the season three finale last year, following months of turmoil as they navigated their way across to Jamaica and beyond.
Book your Outlander tour now on +44-7305-294773 or book online .
Blackness Castle Outlander tours
The new instalment will finally see Jamie and Claire enjoy a settle home life for a brief stint, but the arrival of Irish pirate Stephen (Ed Speleers) has the potential to ruin everything.
What’s more, the show’s latest trailer has teased Brianna Fraser (Sophie Skelton) will make the monumental decision to go through the Standing Stones in a bid to find her parents.
This comes after the university student receives a stark warning from Roger Mackenzie (Richard Rankin) Jamie and Claire could be in danger, but it’ll be nothing compared to the horrors Stephen will inflict.
The psychotic character could be set to take a particular fancy to Brianna on the hit time-travelling series, but how will the plot progress? Surely Highlander Jamie wouldn’t let Stephen continue his reign of terror.
Shedding light on his character, the Downton Abbey actor hinted at the timeline to come.
“He’s a tricky man,” Ed told Glamour Online.
“There’s a lot of levels to him, a lot of layers,” he continued. “I think he has a very particular view on the world.
Outlander season 4 spoilers: Stephen Bonnet star Ed Speleers has teased his “unravelling” (Image: STARZ)
Outlander season 4 spoilers: Stephen Bonnet is the new villain for the latest series (Image: STARZ)
“Whether that’s due to circumstance, whether that’s due to nature, nurture, all of this — what actually he’s really about, who he really is.”
“It will all be unraveled all in good time,” the star added cryptically.
Exact details of the pain Stephen will cause are being kept tightly under wraps, but book-fans can already guess at the torment that’s ahead.
It’s unlikely the pirate will be a worse foe than the infamous Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), however his actions are set to have lasting consequences on the beloved Fraser family.
Meanwhile, The Spy Who Dumped Me star Sam has teased the first meeting between Jamie and his long-lost aunt Jocasta (Maria Doyle Kennedy) in the season opener.
Outlander season 4 spoilers: Will Stephen Bonnet cause trouble for the Frasers? (Image: STARZ)
The Scottish actor shared: “[Meeting Jocasta is] a really important moment [for Jamie].
“Jamie’s mother and father have always been a very strong presence in his mind, and in his life.
“For him to meet his last relative — and that she looks and sounds so much like his mother — is really big for him.”
English actress Maria went on to describe her character as “a woman who is clearly nobody’s fool, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, although she sees them everywhere”.
“She can’t help but be attracted to this incredibly opinionated and empowered woman [Claire],” the actress then added. “She doesn’t meet women like that.”
Shore excursions from your Edinburgh port start at 10 am . Our private group tours take up to four people to three Outlander filming locations. We also offer bespoke private tours with the option of choosing your own itinerary .
Tours start from locations in Edinburgh or Glasgow .
Normal pickup point is your port in Edinburgh including Queensferry , Rosyth and Newhaven , Edinburgh .
Itinerary
On this shore excursion we visit various locations used for filming the hit series Outlander. Based on the best selling novels by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander is filmed in a number of locations in castles and towns in central Scotland.
The first location on this Outlander tour is the historic town of Falkland. The town is the setting for episode one where Frank and Claire Randall come to Scotland on holiday. Falkland Palace is a historic building and shops and features can be recognised , including the town square fountain where Frank encounters Jamie’s ghost watching Claire through the window.
Doune Castle was built in 1400 for the first Duke of Albany and provides the setting for Castle Leoch in Outlander. It was also the set for Winterfell in Game of Thrones and Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Doune is one of the best preserved medieval castles in Scotland.
Blackness Castle goes back to 1440 . The castle provides the setting for Fort William, as the original fort no longer exists.
The castle is long and narrow because of the shape of the rock on which it is situated and it is sometimes called ‘ the ship that never sailed ‘ . It guards the bay at Blackness and is only a few miles from Linlithgow Palace . The first castle was built in the middle of the 15th century by Sir George Crichton , Earl of Caithness , a member of one of the most powerful families in Scotland . King James II acquired Blackness in 1453 when he annexed the lands of the Crichtons . From then on the castle was mainly used as a prison . In 1543 Cardinal Beaton was held here for a month . Rebuilding started in the 1530s under the direction of Sir James Hamilton of Finnart who also worked at Linlithgow Palace and Stirling Castle . He was instructed to make the castle safe from artillery , and he achieved this by making the south and east walls very thick . A new tower was built at the south end . In the 1560s , in the reign of Mary Queen of Scots , a Spur was built to protect the main gate . In the 1870s the castle was the main ammunition depot for Scotland .The Castle is a popular location for historical re-enactments and has changed little in 600 years . Doune is one of the best preserved medieval castles in Scotland.
Hamlet has scenes filmed at Blackness Castle and Dunnottar Castle.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Starring: Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Paul Scofield, Alan Bates, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, John McEnery
Filming of the Outlander TV series has taken place in Scotland . One of Outlander’s first scenes was filmed in the picturesque town of Falkland, which stands in for Inverness in the 1940s . The show is based on American author Diana Gabaldon’s series of historical novels, which sees nurse Claire Beauchamp Randell mysteriously swept back from 1945 to 1743 Highland Scotland . Falkland features some familiar sights from the TV series , including Mrs Baird’s Guesthouses (actually the Covenanter Hotel), the Bruce Fountain where Claire comes across the ghost of Jamie, and the building that doubles as Farrell’s Hardware and Furniture Store. Most of the filming will take place in Scotland, according to the show’s executive producer Ron Moore . Scotland’s stunning landscape, with its rolling hills, rugged mountains, picturesque towns and villages, castles and sprawling beaches has provided the perfect backdrop for the world of cinema. The show is based on American author Diana Gabaldon’s series of historical novels, which sees nurse Claire Beauchamp Randell mysteriously swept back from 1945 to 1743 Highland Scotland where rebellion and romance are afoot. Executive Producer Ron Moore has commented on Scotland : “The landscape itself is a character in the show. There’s a particular quality to the light in Scotland, even to the grass and the trees.” Outlander season 2 is expected to premiere sometime in the first half of 2016
The tour spends an hour at each location .
Travel by saloon car
Small private group tour with a maximum of 4 people
shore excursions from ports including South Queensferry , Rosyth and Newhaven , Edinburgh
Tour costs – £200 for up to 4 people .
Lunch , refreshments and entrance tickets are not included in the price.
