‘Outlander’ Star Sam Heughan’s Personal Guide To Scotland

– Hello there, I’m Sam Heughan. Today, I’m gonna be taking you all around bonnie Scotland. Whilst traveling Scotland, you might hear Gaelic or indeed even some old Scots. But here’s some slang that we use day-to-day. This is a beautiful word. I like this word, “stravaig.”add a notejump to

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Or if you are doing this, you are stravaiging. One of my favorite bars in Glasgow is called Stravaigin. It means to wander, or to go for a wee stroll. Normally, in the hour before sunset. You know the golden hour? I love that one. This is an easy one, “ken.”

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Now not everyone in Scotland is called Ken, but you’ll hear it said a lot. It’s actually to know, so, “Aye, aye, I ken. Yes. Yes, I know. Ye ken?” Ah, very good. A “sassenach.” What is a sassenach? I hear you ask. A sassenach used to be a long time ago, a word for an English person, from Sassenachia.

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It was a derogatory term for an English person. It is now being used partly due to my show, “Outlander.” It’s a term of endearment. But it basically means an outsider, someone not from these parts. Auld Reekie, that’s Edinburgh. I think probably because it was a smelly old place.

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They didn’t have toilets in the old days. So they would literally throw it out the window. And as they threw it out the window, your whatever you’ve done in the bathroom, you’d shout, “Gardyloo!” Which is basically, watch your head. After a whisky tasting,

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you’re probably feeling like you need a bit scran. You’re a bit hungry, you want some food, you’re scran. Oh this is definitely what to do after your whisky tasting, and then you’ve had your scran. You’re then gonna go lie in your scratcher, your bed.

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It might be hard to get you out of it. These are good. You found good ones. Lang may yer lum reek. Now this is a nice expression to say to someone, “Long may your lum, your chimney, reek or smoke.” Basically, I hope that you have a long life, and that your hearth is always burning,

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and yeah, lang may yer lum reek. Ah, one of my favorite expressions, slainte, cheers. You can say. Well you can also say slainte mor, which means even bigger. Bigger cheers. Now if you’re gonna go on a wee road trip around Scotland like I did in “Men in Kilts”, you might get hungry.

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And actually these ones here I’m quite fond of. This is a Tunnock’s caramel wafer. Tunnock’s are this old Scottish company. A wafer is pretty damn good. A layered caramel wafer-y biscuit-y thing. Delicious, as you can see. Ah, fabulous. Thank you very much.

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However, they also make a Tunnock’s teacake. It’s a round dome chocolate-covered wafer bottom. And the inside, marshmallow. Incredible. You can bite the chocolate off, suck out the marshmallow, eat the wafer on its own. Or just shove it all in your gob. It’ll keep you going for a while. Delicious.

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Next, from Edinburgh, we have Edinburgh Rock. Now I think Rock is all over Scotland and all over the British Isles actually. No it’s not the stone that Edinburgh Castle is built on. And if you go to see Edinburgh Castle, you’ll see it is built on this amazing stone.

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And actually in Edinburgh also, is Arthur’s Seat, which is an old part of a volcano. Now most snacks in Scotland are essentially sugar. So once you’ve had a few of them, you’re buzzing. But as you can see, it’s very hard, very tough. And it’s essentially just pure sugar. Ah, the shortbread.

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Now Scotland, synonymous with shortbread. We love it. Walker’s. Wheat flour, butter, sugar, sugar and salt. Delicious. There’s also another famous Scottish snack called tablet, which is essentially sugar, and I think condensed milk, and it’s all reduced down

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and it hardens into something similar to Rock. I’m not sure why the Scots love sugar so much, but hey, it keeps us going. And actually, speaking of sugar, here, we have possibly, apart from whisky, one of the most famous Scottish drinks. Now, all around the world, Coca-Cola is number one.

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In Scotland, no, no, no, no, no. Irn Bru. A wee can of ginger. We don’t know why it’s ginger. I can’t tell you what it tastes like. There’s not a single taste like it in the world. The ingredients are basically sugar, citric acid, some sort of flavorings and more sugar.

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When Irn Bru tried to reduce the sugar in their recipe, there was a public outcry in Scotland. The best thing for a hangover. A wee can of ginger and maybe a wee Tunnock’s teacake. Delicious. Mmm. It’s made from girders, apparently. – [Crew] Made from what? – Girders. I don’t know.

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If you’re gonna come to Scotland, there’s one thing you must do. And that is of course you must sample the water of life. Uisce beatha. That is, whisky. Different regions have different types of whisky. And there’s a small island here called Islay. All the whiskies come from Islay

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are predominantly smokey whisky. That’s because they tend to smoke the barley with peat. And peat was used to keep houses warm, way, way back. When they burnt that it was like a sort of form of coal. It would keep you warm, but it also smell pretty badly. A lot of the whiskies around here, Speyside,

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tend to be lighter, more sweet. Could be down due to the water there. And Lowland whisky’s having a sort of resurgence, really. For many years, they haven’t really been at the forefront of Scottish whisky, but they’re making a comeback. My own personal whisky, the Sassenach,

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I can’t really tell you where it’s from because it’s actually three different distilleries. If you’re in Scotland and you visit one of its many, many distilleries, you might have a wee whisky tasting. Which is, come on, let’s face it, the best part of visiting a whisky distillery.

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You’ll be greeted by the proud owner and they might pour you a wee dram, a wee dram, a wee shot. But it isn’t a shot. So when you go in there, don’t just hammer it back. As much as you really want to, and you’re probably desperate for one, after having walked around the distillery for a few hours.

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Ah, what you will have smelt when you’re walking around is maybe the barley or the spirit. The angel’s share is what they like to call it. It’s the spirit evaporating from the barrels. Well, the first thing to do at your whisky tasting, you’ll probably be given a glass like this.

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This is a Glencairn Glass. You can try whisky from other glasses but this one’s been specially designed, so then it captures the aroma. And makes it easier to sample the whisky. Oh, oh no, my God. When you’re smelling the whisky, do give it a smell.

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You’ll find that you might be able to pick up more notes. And on this I’m getting butter scotch and honey earthiness. It’s delicious. Maybe give it a swirl around. You can see how strong it is from the legs. Similar to wine tasting, you’ll see if the alcohol volume is quite high,

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it’ll produce these legs that slowly drip down the glass. You might want to check the color of it. And then of course, the tasting. Don’t drink it all at once. Have a wee sip. Let it sit on your tongue, swallow, and see how long the finish is, what flavors come out. You can’t go wrong.

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And honestly, if it’s too strong for you, it is a good idea to add just a wee dash of water. The water also helps open up the oils in the whisky. And when you do that, you might find there’s a lot more flavors come out. A lot of the higher notes, a lot of the aromatics, a lot of the floral notes.

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Especially when things are bottled at a higher strength. A lot of whiskys in Scotland are bottled at cask strength, which is anywhere between 40 to 50 to even 60%, which is pretty fiery stuff. This one here, 46. I like a bit of alcohol. Cheers. Now, if you didn’t know,

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Scotland is part of the British Isles. It’s at the north of England. You can see England just down here, but we don’t wanna talk about them. They’re not very important. So this is Scotland, the Highlands, the Islands, Central Belt, the Lowlands. And then going further up here, Shetland,

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which is the most furthest part of Scotland. The original people that lived here, who were the Picts. And in fact, a lot of the people from Shetland believe they’re not Scottish, they’re Scandinavian. Over here, somewhere behind my head, the Scandinavians, or the Vikings.

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They took over a lot of Scotland. So a lot of the place names, especially in the east coast, have actually got Scandinavian names. And we use in Scot’s language, a lot of Scandinavian words. Like, for instance, bairn. Bairn is a child. Over here, Lewis, and the north of Scotland, and the Highlands.

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Very remote. Not many people live up there. But people do. And most of them do speak Gaelic. Gaelic is similar to the Irish Gaelic, different pronunciations, but it is a very, very similar language that actually comes from the Gaels, who were originally from Ireland that came across.

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I think if you go to Scotland, it’s a very romantic place. It’s tangible, the history there. You can see castles and battlefields and I don’t know, it sort of conjures up a great romance. So it’s hard to not fall in love with its landscape. One of the best things to do is to hire a car.

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Remember, you’re gonna be driving on the left hand side of the road. So that is your first challenge. And a lot of people drive up to the Isle of Skye. It’s a very beautiful place. There’s a lot to explore. The Fairy Pools, Old Man of Storr. It’s such an incredible place.

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And you can hire yourself a wee bothy, which is a wee house, or a cottage to stay in. But on the way, you’ll go past some amazing lochs. You’ll go past Loch Linhe, Loch Awe, Loch Etive. And there’s an amazing castle, a very famous castle called Eilean Donan. It sits on a little island,

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and has a stone bridge going across to it. It’s quite romantic, so you should check that out. While shooting “Outlander”, we have been very lucky to shoot all around Scotland, really. Great castles, great battlefields. Firstly, it’ll probably be Blackness, where Jamie Fraser is whipped.

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This is in Fife, just on the coast near Edinburgh. It’s a very dramatic castle set right on a promontory. Overlooking the Firth of Forth. Very hard to attack. We also have Loch Rannoch, where it’s a valley. Now, this is where the magical stones are, that we put there.

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Next to it is Schiehallion, which is this amazing mountain. The mountain of the Scots, or the mountain of the fairies. It was very special mountain for the locals there and for the Celts. So if you wanna go there, go visit the Stone Circle. However, unfortunately the Stone Circle isn’t there.

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Our stone circle is made of polystyrene. We put it up there when we’re shooting. Another great place that you might want to visit, Culloden Moor. This is where bonnie Prince Charlie came back to the shores of Scotland and unfortunately lost his battle for independence. Being a Scotsman,

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you would think I was a proud golfer. Because obviously, St. Andrews is the home of golf here, in Fife. Very famous place. And I have actually teed off on the old course. But I’m not really a golfer, to be honest. However, I would say there are infinite number of amazing golf courses to experience.

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From way down in the south in Galloway, all the way up to the very tip, you’ll find a golf course that’s gonna challenge you and give you some amazing, spectacular views. Coming back to Edinburgh actually, which is the forefront of especially, live theater, not only that, comedy and music,

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because once a year we have the Edinburgh Festival. It’s a very large festival of live performance. It’s when the city almost triples in size. There are shows, comedy, theater, music, touring shows. They all come to Edinburgh and converge. And it really is an amazing experience.

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The best theater, to be honest, can be found in Edinburgh. It’s where I grew up. It’s where I first went to youth theater at the Royal Lyceum Theater here in Edinburgh. We’ve also got the Traverse Theater, which is also where I did my first professional job,

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just around the corner, they do a lot more new writing. There are a few places around the rest of Scotland. We’ve got Perth, which is up here. You’ve got a lot in Glasgow that goes on. I actually started my career in touring theater and we would tour all around Scotland

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and do plays in the most remote places. So we went to the Isle of Skye, we went to Lewis up here. We even played on a place called Easdale Island, which is a tiny little island somewhere up here on the Summer Isles. I’m obviously a very proud Scotsman. And when I’m away, I do tend to miss Scotland.

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The people are very friendly, you’ll find. Especially the taxi drivers. If you get in a taxi in Scotland, they’ll find out everything about your life before you finish your journey. I guess I miss the landscape. You know, it’s many lochs and glens. The mountains, the air, the water, soft water.

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So that’s everything you need to know to pass yourself off as a true Scotsman. Just don’t forget your kilt.