MIDHOPE CASTLE

Better known as Lallybroch or Broch Tuarach

The tower house seems to have been Scotland’s equivalent of the English manor house, the centre of an estate with numerous tenant farmers. In the Outlander books, Lallybroch (or Broch Tuarach) is the 18th-century home of leading character James Fraser. The TV series uses the exterior of Midhope Castle as Lallybroch, but Midhope is a derelict shell in an active farmyard and required a fair amount of dressing up for the brief scenes shot on location.

Previously, my layouts have featured cameos based on movie scenes, and Midhope is not the first building in a TV series to catch my attention. Long-time readers may recall Fitzgerald’s, the Irish bar from Ballykissangel, which was a printed freebie in an early issue of Model Rail.

However, Lallybroch is big. The building itself is some 13in by 4in in ‘OO’ and it really needs the courtyard area and gatehouse, too, which brings the overall footprint to 14in by 12in. It is also, at four storeys, 10in high so it could easily dominate a small layout.

Nevertheless, I wanted the challenge of building it and as I did so I developed the idea of depicting it during a location shoot for a movie. This would enable me to limit the number of figures in period costume, as these are hard to find. The majority of the figures would be ‘behind the camera’ and could be in modern clothing. I thought it might be fun to make lights, cameras and other movie-making paraphernalia, but I hadn’t realized quite what a challenge that might be!

Midhope Castle on the Hopetoun Estate near Edinburgh is only the shell of a 15th-century tower house. It was re-roofed and fitted with contemporary windows in 1988 to prevent further deterioration. ALAMY