Outlander Tour Day 2

 Well, I got waylaid by some things, but am ready now to tell you about my second day of touring Outlander sites with slaintescotland.com

We started off fresh and early to go to Hopetoun House where quite a few rooms were used in various seasons of Outlander.

Driving up to it was just incredible, the place just goes on and on so I knew I was going to enjoy exploring it. We were ushered in to the main entryway and immediately were taken in by the beauty of the place. It was built in the late 1600's by the Hope family and Lord Hopetoun lives there with his family today. I don't even know how they just call this a house - to me it's more like a palace.

The interiors have not changed in three centuries and that boggles the mind! Most all of it shows architecture from the Georgian era. There are painings, tapestries, studies filled with books and beautiful furniture.  The care that is given the house, rooms and grounds is impeccable.

The house of course, was used as the estate of the Duke of Sandringham in Season 1 - the first place I wanted to see was the red drawing room where Claire spoke to the Duke

Such a beautiful room with lovely portraits all around.  The McDonalds ran into Jaimie and Murtagh on the back steps and on the west lawn, the dual and sword fights took place.

 I will admit it kind of tickled my fancy to know I was walking in the same places as the cast. There is a courtyard behind the stables which doubled as the Parisian street where Mary was attacked and as the stables of Helwater. It also was used for Jamie chasing Fergus when he first met him. I specifically remember this bit of railing in one of the Helwater episodes

 

 This back wall was also used in the chase with Fergus, but of course is minus all the accoutrements of a television set. I also recognized the Maison de Elise (brothel) where Jamie and Prince Charles met.

  

After Mary's attack, she stayed in Claire and Jamie's guest room which I found on the second floor 

 The room was so beautiful with intricate tapestries covering the walls. There was another room upstairs which was used for Jamie's meeting with Lord Dunsany at Helwater. 

 

And I also found the room that Mary Hawkins stayed in at her uncle's house

Interestingly, they also used a different area of the house for the Earl of Ellesmere's home when they drive up to help Lady Geneva with the birth of Willie

 

In the back there is a small area that was used for Jamie teaching Willie how to ride, but I didn't get a picture of it. I did however find the area where Jamie sees Willie in his pram 

It was a peaceful and idyllic area. 

After our wonderful tour, we ate at the Stables Kitchen right in the house and had a nice lunch with an amazing dessert - their white chocolate and raspberry dessert is to die for!

Next stop was Callendar House which is in Falkirk and dates back to the 14th century. There is one area with a section of the Antonine Wall which dates back to 142 AD - doesn't get much older than this!

 

It's biggest claim to fame in Outlander land is they filmed the scenes when the Duke of Sandringham is at his home Belhurst Manor and Claire and Mary are there with him. They all end up in the kitchen when Jamie and Murtagh burst in to save Claire and Mary and Murtagh kills the Duke by using a sword to cut off his head to "lay your vengeanceat your feet" for poor Mary's rape.

Callendar House hosted many famous figures over the years including Mary Queen of Scots, and Bonnie Prince Charlie!

Our final visit of the day was to Drummond Castle and gardens. What a treat! 

Got to do some exploring inside

Another castle and the most beautiful gardens I have seen. Of course they were used in Outlander as the gardens at Versailles - it was breathtaking - even though it was fall and many flowers were long gone. 

That's it for today - next time, we'll be off to Culloden, Clava Cairns, Pitlochery and the Hermitage. As always, more photos of thes places  are on my facebook page facebook.com/beespit59/. I am at Instagram  @lemonslinda and twitter @sokheaven

The Highlander Fling

 

Having arrived alive and well in Glasgow, I spent the first 2 days acclimating and sleeping off my jet lag - I had prepared for this because I wanted to be ready for the Fling. As I mentioned in my last post, having heard of the Fling, I changed my whole vacation just to be able to attend this. It is put on by actor Scott Kyle who played Ross the smith in Outlander. I had started to follow him on Twitter and was surprised when he immediately followed me back and even responded to some of my tweets - that's the thing about Scott, while of course this makes a bigger fan base for him, he really does want to get to know the fans and it's one reason he started doing the flings. 

I arrived at the Doubletree a bit early hoping to get a good table. I knew no one of course but had chatted a bit online with a lovely lady from Edinburgh named Lyn Wilson. She was kind enough to ask me to join her table, so getting there early made it much easier to find her before the crowds started coming in. I was met at the door by Jay Graham also from Outlander. He was simply a really nice guy and we got to know each other a little better over drinks later in the evening.

 Now he lookeLyn and her friends and I found a nice table and as we were settling in Romann Berrux who played young Fergus walked in with his girlfriend. As we were the only ones inside, it gave us a great opportunity to chat with him. He was a very sweet young man and I could see some of the mannerisms of Fergus in him. Of course the last time I saw him, which obviously was on tv - he looked like this along with Scott.Now he looked like this 

Shortly after Scott and his wife Karen came in and we told him how excited we were to be there and how we had been looking forward to it.  I asked if there would be Haggis and he said he planned the whole dinner to be traditionally Scottish, so yes, indeed we were having haggis.

People were starting to arrive so we settled down at our table and watched the people come in. Many were in costume which I thought looked like a lot of fun. Having two kids who are into cosplay, I could see myself doing it if I didn't have to lug the clothing across the ocean!

Stephen Walters who played Angus Mhor arrived just then and once again I was able to have a bit of conversation with him - another thoroughly nice guy, taking tons of time with the people  lined up to meet him. Later he entertained us with a set playing some of his funny original songs like the Diana Garibaldi (Gabaldon) Blues https://youtu.be/IzhzFlb-pxE  and some more traditional things like Don't Let me Down and Blackbird. Of course I had to get a picture with him as well - pretty good beginning for my time in Scotland!

Dinner was as Scott had promised: traditional haggis, tatties and neeps - that's potatoes and turnips! I have to tell you I really like haggis. I had tried it before when my husband and I went with his parents to the Feast of Haggis in Chicago. As a little aside here, this feast in Chicago was a big deal. It was held in a beautiful hotel and Helen Hayes was guest of honer. The funniest thing was all the men were carrying little suitcases with them. I asked my husband what they were and they were portable bars! The drinks were very expensive there, so they brought their own!  

Scott did an incredible job putting this fling on - As we sat down to dinner a pipe and drum group came in playing Scotland the Brave - my husband would have loved that - it was his favorite song.  You can see it here https://youtu.be/maohqT9I-MM

This was followed by highland dancers - young girls who danced as a group, https://youtu.be/nwO8Kz7zZlwas a set of four doing the sword dance (they could have given Sam and Duncan some lessons!) https://youtu.be/PAplxqPYtes and one lovely young lady who danced to Scotland the Brave. https://youtu.be/mxn0hh5R-9Q

Following that were various groups of young people Scott has worked with who sang https://youtu.be/_1jiTJ5eMJc   and danced https://youtu.be/-SbUTQDspkQ  their way into our hearts.  When dinner was over, the ceilidh began with some lessons for those who did not know how to dance.https://youtu.be/3s6n_bVaPqM The very enthusiastic dancer is Jon Dan Duncan who was in the Culloden episodes and also was a regulator this season.  I found it interesting that they come very close to our square dancing which must have been brought over to America by Scottish settlers and morphed into what we have today. Here you will see them all dancing - https://youtu.be/_LXEla0fdaI

The last bit of entertainment was done by a Rod Stewart impersonator who was very good and had everyone up and dancing. A lovely surprise was Adhamh O Broin (who taught Gaelic to the cast) who sang the last song which was plaintive and beautiful.

One thing the Scots do that is incredibly moving is they join hands at the end of the evening and sing all the verses of Auld Lang Syne while holding hands, walking in towards the middle and meeting, then stepping back again and doing that until the song ends. I have to tell you I was crying by the time it was over!

permission by Scott Kyle

BUT!!!! There was more! Some of us went with Scott, Jay, JonDan and some of the other actors  to the top of the Radisson Red Skybar which had a beautiful view of the city. We sat on the rooftop with our drinks for a bit, but when it got chilly we headed inside. The conversation was interesting and at times hilarious and we all hated to leave.  It was just such a perfect ending to an incredible evening. I made a lot of lovely friends that day who I still keep up with  - from Scotland, England and of course the USA.

Tomorrow is the Hangover Tour with Scott which was an incredible day - see you then!

Sadly the fling was cancelled this year, but please check out this video Scott put together as it really catches the essence of the experience!