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Making Outlander Outlander Restrospective

This post was written by Andree Poppleton

January 27, 2020

Outlander Season 5 Update #1 – preparing for filming

(first posted at outlandercast in March 2019)
Even though #Droughtlander has set in, we can still enjoy some of Outlandish goings-on. Here are a few little somethings to tide us over — with a little help from my friends.

While Outlander fans everywhere were anxiously awaiting the announcement that Outlander Season 5 has finally started filming, keen fans on the ground in Scotland took to scouting around to see what’s afoot.

At Fraser’s Ridge, Claire and Jamie’s Outlander Season 4 cabin got an outer coating to face the rigors of the Scottish winter. But now, the covers are off and the cabin looks ready again to be used as a location.

outlander updates, fraser's ridge in Outlander season 5 — *First a framework was built to cover the cabin …. and then it was completely hidden in a ‘winter coat’.*

outlander updates, getting fraser's ridge ready for outlander season 5 — *As of last weekend, the covers are off and the cabin is ready for action.*

At “Wilmington” new building works have taken place, and the town has been expanded. Looks as if they will have a couple of new streets and buildings to use for different townscapes in Outlander Season 5.

Also, River Run was looking pretty sparse on a frosty winter morning compared to her summer look.

No intel on the location of the Big House yet. The suspense!

A New Outlander Tour Site to Add to Your Scotland Itinerary

Hunterston House in Ayrshire is now open for tours. You might remember that I visited there some time ago and wrote a post about it. At that stage tours were not available and I made special arrangements with the owner. But now, you can arrange private tours for a minimum of 4 people at a very reasonable £20 per person.

Sam Thomson of Edinburgh Tour Guides went there recently and shared these pictures.

outlander updates, hunterston house in outlander, rev wakefield's house — *Wee Roger hoping for a biscuit in the library of Hunterston House aka the Rev. Wakefield’s house.*

Diana Gabaldon in Scotland

By now everyone knows that Diana Gabaldon has been gallivanting around Scotland basking in the glory of receiving a Thistle Award from Visit Scotland, the Scottish Tourism authority. The “Outlander Effect” is going strong. While it was a thing before the TV show started, it has blossomed and burgeoned with the advent of Outlander, the TV series. Tourism to Outlanderfilming sites is flourishing, with a corresponding impact on the Scottish economy.

The award presented to Diana was a spectacular work of art. For those who haven’t seen, it here it is, commissioned by Visit Scotland and created by Scottish book sculptor, Thomas Wightman.

While in Scotland Diana held an intimate gathering at Hopetoun House– one of those very well known Outlander locations. Hopetoun House is a stately home on a magnificent estate which includes Midhope Castle (Lallybroch) and is very close to Blackness Castle (Fort William). Hopetoun House has been used in seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Outlander. The temporary home of the Duke of Sandringham, Jamie’s swordfight with the MacDonalds on the lawn, the stables area of Helwater where Geneva propostioned/blackmailed Jamie, and various outdoor scenes have been shot on the grounds.

outlander updates, hopetoun house and Diana Gabaldon event — *Claire goes head to head with the Duke*

outlander updates, hopetoun house and Diana Gabaldon event, Jamie and Murtagh brush past the MacDonalds on the rear steps of Hopetoun House — *Jamie and Murtagh brush past the MacDonalds on the rear steps of Hopetoun House*

outlander update, jamie and willie in the stables at the rear of Hopetoun House — *Jamie and Willie in the stables area at the rear of Hopetoun House*

The evening with Diana Gabaldon was hosted by James Crawford broadcaster and chair of Publishing Scotland. The event was held in the very room where Claire, Jamie and Murtagh had their conversations/confrontations with the Duke of Sandringham. Angela Gourlay of Parkhead House and Sam Thomson of Edinburgh Tour Guides snapped up their tickets (which sold like the proverbial hotcakes) early, and here they are meeting Diana Gabaldon with their respective husbands.

Superfan Graham Malcolm was on the spot too, and snapped these videos of the event where, among other things, Diana shares a bit about where she’s up to with “The Bees” — squeee! That’s gonna help a lot with the woes of #Droughtlander. Graham and his twin bother Stewart are well known in the Outlander world for their tireless efforts to help fans get autographs and other Outlander memorabilia.

Diana Gabaldon on the Final Frenzy for Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone:

Diana Gabaldon on the question about keeping somebody alive who should’ve been killed off!:

Diana Gabaldon on casting Outlander:

Diana Gabaldon on the writing for Outlander:

Thanks to Graham Malcolm, Matthew Fairley, Morag Wright, Angela Gourlay, Sam Thomson and Papa Bob for their contributions to OutlanderUpdates

Such a well deserved award for Diana Gabaldon, who created this world which has us all hooked.

Making Outlander Outlander Restrospective

This post was written by Andree Poppleton

January 27, 2020

Outlander Retrospective – Behind the Scenes in Episode 412, ‘Providence’

(First posted at outlandercast in January 2019)
I reckon that when Claire gets her eyes and surgeon’s hands on Roger next week her diagnosis will be fractured clavicle. #PoorRoger. He is having a VERY difficult time and we are all hoping for a miracle next week.

In this week’s emotion-packed Outlander episode 412 we saw four locations: River Run, Wilmington, the Mohawk Village and the forest scenes with Claire, Jamie and Ian on their quest to locate Roger. With my #BTS radar and enjoyment of all things that go on in the background to make the show, I was thrilled to see Barry Waldo’s posts on Instagram this week. He showed us the inside set that Gary Steele and his team created for River Run. Who knew that the verandah was created on a stage complete with a painted backdrop of the view out to the river. Wow! Couldn’t resist adding those here as they are so interesting.

The scenes with our intrepid threesome searching for Roger — and that heart-rending voiceover by Jamie — were filmed at Cumbernauld Glen on that sunny day when we watched the filming last May. Matthew Fairley spotted the three weaving in and out of the trees on horseback.

And for Wilmington, here are a few more shots from Matthew from his recent visit to the site, as well as a couple of aerial shots of the “town.”

I saw on social media that someone has dubbed Fergus and Marsali, the 18^thcentury Bonnie and Clyde! Hope we’ll see them arrive to settle at the Ridge before the show ends.

The most exciting and traumatic scenes this week were in the Mohawk Village, Shadow Lake. Back to Faskally Woodnear Pitlochry in the Scottish Highlands.

A most magnificent part of the world. The day we were there, a beautiful summer’s day in June, we could not see much, as filming was underway. We had a lovely walk in the forest and by the water’s edge, though.

When we walked down to get a view up towards the village over the loch, we met some folk who were staying in a holiday park at the edge of the loch. One bloke told us a story of the night before when he had gone to the local pub and ”it was full of Indians,” he said! He and his friends had no idea what to make of that.

On the days before we were there, Matthew, Susanne Evans and Pauline Duncan (of Northlands B and B in Pitlochry) each went and got some amazing close-ups of the village dwellings, including fabulous details of the interiors, with the sleeping platforms and all the minutia of village life. Skins, dear carcass, fish drying — what a set up! It was like actually traveling to another world and time.

Have these guys thought of a theme park? Surely “Outlander World” would draw some big crowds?

At this point who can predict what will happen in the last episode? Even for book readers its tricky to know how they are going to close the show. We’ve heard it will be some kind of cliff hanger so we will wait patiently for “Man of Worth.” See you then.

Thanks to my contributors this week: Matthew Fairley, Susanne Evans and Pauline Duncan.

Andrée has been an Outlander fan since December 2015 when she took a friend’s advice to watch this “great show.” Well that was great advice and since then she has travelled from Australia to Scotland twice and spent lots of time checking out the Outlander action. You can follow Andrée on twitter @andree.poppleton and Instagram @AndreePoppleton for more Outlander action.

Making Outlander Outlander Restrospective

This post was written by Andree Poppleton

January 27, 2020

Outlander Retrospective – Behind the Scenes in Episode 411, ‘If Not For Hope’

(First posted at outlandercast January 2019)
‘If Not For Hope’ showed us the beginnings of the search for Roger, and the trials and tribulations of Brianna trying not to get married at River Run. Lord John to the rescue, though! Lovely to see David Berry back on our screens again as well more scenes in Wilmington with Murtagh and Fergus plotting the demise of Mr. Bonnet.

Intrepid local fan Matthew Fairley has shared some pictures with me from his recent forays to “River Run” and “Wilmington.” Interesting to see that the blue screens have been removed at River Run – perhaps because of the harsh winter weather?

Wilmington is interesting because it’s actually just the facade of buildings and an intersection of two ‘streets’. They must use all sorts of different angles and perspectives in filming to give us the impression of a bustling township.

Looks like they also store some of the Indian dwellings there.

I was very happy to spot the clothing our travelling threesome were wearing in part one of ‘Where’s Roger.’ The scene where Ian asks the Cherokee to interpret the necklace/talisman that he got from the Mohawk in exchange for Roger – that clothing let me know that this was a day my friend, Morag, and I were there for the filming at Cumbernauld Glen, near Glasgow and very close to the Outlander studios. It was also the day we met the keen young fan/photographer Matthew Fairley, who has since shared so many of his great pictures with me for you to see.

When we arrived, the animals were awaiting their cue, and Morag got up close and personal with Rollo (she has a way with dogs).

It was a beautiful, very warm and sunny day (slightly un-Scottish) and there were lots of fans about to catch a bit of the action.

At Cumbernauld Glen, the action takes place down near the river and the spectators are kept at a good distance. You can catch glimpses
of the action, but its mostly about meeting the actors when they come up for air on a break.

Chloe Christina Toye captured some of the wonderful details of the costumes as the actors were on break.

And, as usual they were happy to stop and chat, jump in on selfies and sign autographs.

It was such a lovely day, everyone was cheerful and it was altogether a really pleasurable experience. And did I mention it was also my lucky day? Only a few weeks before I was leaving Scotland and I was hoping to get my book signed by Sam Heughan. BOOM! That happened, plus a wee picture with Ms Balfe. Smiles all round for me.

We see Roger arriving at the Mohawk Village at the end of the show, and coming in for yet more physical punishment. The catch cry and hashtag of choice lately seems to be #PoorRoger. These scenes were filmed at Faskally Wood near the beautiful highlands village of Pitlochry. This was a tricky location for spectators. It was not possible to see any of the filming, which was deep in the woods. The day we went there, we skirted around the action and caught a couple of glimpses.

Other fans were fortunate to go there on days before the filming and got lots of interesting pictures inside the village.

Matthew went there, as so did Susanne Evans and Pauline Duncan. She runs the Northlands B & B at Pitlochry, a handy place to stay maybe while you‘re on some Oultandish expeditions? I’ll save the more detailed pictures for next week in “Providence,” when no doubt we will go deeper into Roger’s ordeal at the hands of the Mohawk #PoorRoger.

Finally, here is a fabulous behind-the-scenes video of Roger’s arrival at the village from Steadicam and Camera operator Michael Carstensen, shared on Instagram:

Thanks again to my contributors this week: Chloe Christina Toye, Matthew Fairley, Susanne Evans, Morag Wrightand Pauline Duncan. See you next week in Providence!

Tag: River Run

Outlander Season 5 Update #1 – preparing for filming

Outlander Retrospective – Behind the Scenes in Episode 412, ‘Providence’

Outlander Retrospective – Behind the Scenes in Episode 411, ‘If Not For Hope’