Where Is ‘Outlander’ Season 5 Filmed? You Might Be Surprised

In season 5 of Outlander, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) are finally settling down in their new North Carolina home. The show features beautifully wooded landscapes as the backdrop for Fraser’s Ridge. The set is meant to look like colonial America, but surprisingly, it was filmed on the other side of the Atlantic.

Season 5 of ‘Outlander’ is set in North Carolina

The first few seasons of Outlander follow Claire and Jamie’s life in and around Scotland, England, and France. When Claire travels back to the future, she and Frank (Tobias Menzies) move to Boston. 20 years later, she and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) travel to Scotland where they meet Roger (Richard Rankin). And from there, all three travel back in time. 

Then in season 3, Jamie and Claire travel from Europe to the colonies. They first land in Jamaica, and after a few sordid encounters with Geillis (Lotte Verbeek), they wind up on the Georgia shore.

They find Jamie’s aunt Jacosta (Maria Doyle Kennedy) in River Run. After seeing how peaceful this North Carolina land is, Claire and Jamie decide to settle on their newly granted lot, which they name Fraser’s Ridge. 

‘Outlander’ has been filmed in and around Scotland since season 1 

It makes sense that the first few seasons of Outlander were filmed in Scotland because that’s exactly where they were set. The sprawling castles and countryside would be hard to find anywhere else in the world. 

But when the series’ story moved from Europe to North America, showrunners decided to continue filming Scotland. In an interview with Access, executive producer Maril Davis said they would have loved to film in North Carolina, but didn’t want to leave their Scottish crew behind.  

In the same red carpet interview, Outlander showrunner Ron Moore talked about how the production department channeled the North Carolina landscape in Scotland. “You know, there are sections of Scotland that we have found that do look a bit like North Carolina,” he said. “So it’s mostly about the trees and the kind of foliage and the ground cover that’s there — There’s a place we found to put Fraser’s Ridge that does read like North Carolina.”

Most of the show is filmed in a Glasgow studio

Aside from special outdoor locations, most of Outlander is filmed at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld, Glasgow. This is one of the main reasons the show continues to shoot in and around the city. 

When talking to Radio Times, executive producer Matthew B Roberts said the series has developed a solid production base in Scotland, which is why they aren’t really filming anywhere else. 

“We have our crew, our big studio here, so it was better to base here and remain here. And believe it or not, Scotland plays for North Carolina quite well,” he said. “This [the studio] is a rare thing to have because it’s ours. This is all ours. Every stage is ours, we have prop building, we have plasters, we have everything we need that we can create this world.”