Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland) – Sam Heughan has spent twelve years playing the ultimate Highlander, yet the man himself wants you to turn your back on the crowded peaks and head south. In a new interview, the Outlander star makes an impassioned plea for travellers to discover the quiet, wild Lowlands that raised him – the same region tourists keep skipping while chasing Jamie Fraser’s ghost.
“Scotland is another character in the show, but most people only see the bits we filmed,” Heughan says. “My home in Dumfries and Galloway gets completely overlooked. It breaks my heart.”
The “Outlander Effect” has been brutal and brilliant in equal measure. VisitScotland reports more than £300 million in extra tourist spending since the show began, with some locations seeing visitor numbers jump 200%. Doune Castle, Midhope Castle, and Glencoe are now so packed that locals joke you need a reservation to breathe.
Meanwhile, the entire southwest corner of the country remains almost empty.
Heughan grew up in the tiny village of New Galloway, population under 400. He attended school in Castle Douglas and worked bar jobs in Kirkcudbright before drama school pulled him to London. When Outlander brought him home to film, something shifted.
“I fell in love with Scotland again,” he admits. “Standing on a freezing mountain in the pissing rain, I still felt lucky every single day. You feel the history in your bones here.”
That history runs deeper in the Lowlands than most realise. This is Covenanter country, where Presbyterian rebels hid in caves and fought for their faith. This is Robert Burns country. This is the gateway to the Isle of Whithorn, where Saint Ninian first brought Christianity to Scotland in 397 AD.
And now it is whisky country again.
Heughan and his former Outlander co-star Graham McTavish recently revealed plans for Galloway Distillery, a new craft operation near his childhood home. The actor has been personally involved in every step, from selecting the stills to tasting the new-make spirit.
“It’s the water,” he says simply. “The same water I drank as a kid. Soft, peaty, perfect.”
The distillery will open its doors in 2026 – the same year Outlander airs its final season.
Heughan knows the end is coming. “It’s going to be hard to say goodbye,” he says quietly. After 12 years, 101 episodes, and countless standing stones, Jamie Fraser’s story will finish. But Heughan hopes the love affair with Scotland continues – just in a different postcode.
His Personal Hit List (No Tour Buses Allowed)
Rannoch Moor for the standing stones magic – yes, but then get out.
Threave Castle – a proper island fortress with ospreys overhead and no gift shop queue.
Caerlaverock Castle – the triangle-shaped moated ruin that looks like it fell out of a fairytale.
Galloway Forest Park – Britain’s first Dark Sky Park, where the Milky Way spills across the sky on clear nights.
Mull of Galloway – Scotland’s Land’s End, with cliffs, lighthouse, and puffins.
Kirkcudbright – the “artists’ town” with colourful harbourside galleries and the best ice cream in Scotland.
The Bookshop in Wigtown – Britain’s biggest second-hand bookshop, in Scotland’s National Book Town.
“I took Caitríona [Balfe] down here a few years ago,” Heughan remembers. “She couldn’t believe how quiet it was. We walked for miles and barely saw another soul.”
That solitude is the point.
While Loch Ness tour buses crawl along single-track roads and Skye’s Fairy Pools turn into human soup every summer, Dumfries and Galloway still feels undiscovered. You can walk the Southern Upland Way without meeting anyone. You can sit on a beach at the Solway Firth and watch the sun set over England with only seals for company.
Heughan’s message is blunt: come south before the secret gets out.
Because once Outlander ends, the fans will need somewhere new to fall in love with.
And this time, Sam Heughan wants them to fall in love with the Scotland that shaped him – not just the one that shaped Jamie Fraser.
