Outlander star Sam Heughan said the hit TV show has been 'life-changing' for the Scottish tourism industry as well as his career.
Speaking at a special event with 'Men in Kilts' co-star Graham McTavish, 60, the 41-year-old Scots actor said the time-traveling show had spawned an interest in Scotland for many and helped boost visitor numbers.
The pair were launching their latest project, The Clanlands Almanac: Seasonal Stories From Scotland, which goes on sale across the UK from today.
The event, which took place at Edinburgh's Usher Hall on Sunday (November 7), saw the roguish duo chat about all things Scotland, Outlander and of course their other hit TV show Men in Kilts.
Sam said: "Outlander has spawned an interest in Scotland, it's created a film studio that wasn't there before. It's been life-changing for the tourism industry and also for our careers.
"Scotland is always at the heart of Outlander - I've always said it's like another character in the show."
Speaking about their Scottish adventure for the popular travel show they made together, which forms the background for the new Clanlands book, Graham said he had an idea to make a series of films about clans to sell on DVD to clan members living abroad back in 1991 - but no one was interested at the time.
He said: "I've always been very interested in Scottish history and, in particular, the clans.
"I had this great plan in 1991 that I was going to make a series of films about clans and then sell them on DVD to clan members living abroad, but nobody was interested at the time.
"It's so lovely to be talking about something like that 30 years later that has actually come true. We've been terribly lucky.
"We were able to write the first book because of the lockdown we were experiencing. If it hadn't been for that, I don't know if we'd have been able to do it.
"The way we did the show it was almost entirely unscripted, but it kept it very spontaneous and real."
Heughan added: "Men In Kilts was pretty much one of the first shows to start shooting with Covid protocols after the first lockdown.
"We were very fortunate in that we had a very small crew, we were up in the Highlands and we were outdoors a lot as well.
"We drew upon a lot of contacts I had from various photoshoots and we had a fantastic crew from Outlander.
"We have a great core group of people and because everyone had been locked up, we were all so excited to be outdoors and working together. We were like a travelling family."
Outlander
The chat inevitably led to the recently wrapped up season six of Outlander, which is due to air early next year.
Filming was held up for months by the pandemic, but Sam suggested the show would be better than ever when it returned.
He said: "It's a shortened season of eight episodes, but the episodes are much longer - the first episode runs for around an hour and a half.
"That extra time spent with the characters means they are really strong episodes and there are a whole load of new characters coming in."
The dynamic duo then ended the chat with an impromptu ceilidh, getting on to their feet to thank fans for attending and giving them a wee show by doing some slick moves in their kilts.
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