Outlander delivers

A trip out to Midhope Castle to drop off some tote bags ended in meeting a lovely couple from Ohio.

This week I was up at Midhope Castle on the Hopetoun Estate by South Queensferry to top up the kiosk there (hello to James) with lots of these tote bags which feature one of my sketches.

While there I met a couple waiting to get a photo on the steps of ‘Jamie’s family house, Lallybroch’ as Midhope is known in the TV series. I told them of the other nearby Outlander locations and the ones in Edinburgh, and in exchange they agreed to model my bag!

I found out all about the Outlander books written by Diana Gabaldon when I collaborated with Scottish tour company Mary’s Meanders on a book of locations featured in the hit television series set mainly in 18th century Scotland.

I love how the books mix fantasy with historical facts and feature so many Scottish locations. Watching the show it is great to imagine how life was so different just a few hundred years ago. And the legacy seems to be a constant flow of visitors keen to find the locations and see where main characters Jamie and Claire walked and visited.

The book feature my sketched locations along with both factual historical details about each one but also how they were used in the filming so provides a great insight and I feel the ink and watercolour sketches on tinge the feel of looking back to a different time before photography.

After the book was made we used the drawings to make the above tote bag and the tea towel of a number of the locations below. All are available at the Midhope Castle kiosk and also on my Etsy page below.