The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fans can dress up for the Outlander experience
Castle has set of robes so visitors can become Claire Randall
Outlander fans can now dress up in period costume at the fictional clan seat of the MacKenzies – just like the show’s plucky heroine Claire Randall.
Doune Castle near Blair Drummond – which has been used as a set for Winterfell in Game of Thrones and as Castle Anthrax in Monty Python’s Holy Grail – was turned into Castle Leoch, the seat of the MacKenzie clan, for the TV fantasy.
Dual Scottish-US citizen Katie Gater, 24, was among the first to choose from the rack of authentic-looking robes set out for visitors to the medieval Perthshire pile.
Once in costume, tourists can take a step back in time to the Jacobean era and dream of searching for their own fictional rebel Jamie Fraser in the castle’s magnificent surroundings.
The drama, based on US author Diane Gabaldon’s centuries-spanning love story, has soared steadily in popularity and is now in its third series.
Katie, who splits her time between her home in Dunblane and workplace in Houston, Texas, is a confirmed Outlander fan, as are thousands of her fellow Americans.
US visitors have been turning up in their droves to view the Scottish locations where the love story about time-travelling Claire (Irish actress Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Scottish actor Sam Heughan) was filmed.
The fantasy show’s armies of fans call themselves Caitriots and Heughligans after the actors’ real names.
The most popular destination in the Outlander tourist boom is Doune, which has seen an unprecedented 105% rise in tourists.
From 47,069 in 2014, when the show was launched in the United States, visitor numbers have more than doubled to 96,497, meaning over 1,800 people a week.
As a result, work has started to enlarge car park and café facilities to cope with the multitude.
Blackness Castle, which provides the setting for malicious Black Jack Randall’s headquarters, Glencoe Visitor Centre, Glasgow Cathedral and Preston Mill, which features as Lallybroch on the Fraser estate, have also seen huge jumps in visitor numbers.
Doune, a 14th Century castle which sits on the River Teith near Stirling is turned into the fictional home of clan chief Colum MacKenzie.
The towering structure remains virtually unchanged since it was first built and it is regarded as one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Scotland.
The oldest parts of the structure date back to 1260 and it was completed in 1400 for the 1st Duke of Albany.
It was once used by the royals as a summer retreat and the huge courtyard, great hall and 100ft gate tower were designed to impress guests who came to holiday and hunt.