SINCE hitting screens in 2014, U.S television series Outlander has brought Scottish history and Scottish actor Sam Heughan into the spotlight. Ahead of the release of the second series, we spoke to Sam about the ‘Outlander effect’, his favourite places to film and his knowledge of Scottish history.

Outlander might not be a phrase Scottish audiences are all too familiar with. Despite being filmed on Scottish soil and based largely on real events, the vast majority of its fans are on the other side of the world in countries including Japan, Brazil and Australia.

“It’s a history adventure romance with time travel”, Sam explains. “It’s hard to pigeonhole but it’s a great story with a lot of central characters. It’s based in reality and in history with this time travel element.”