Where Did Ed Speleers Outlander Film His Battle Scenes?

I get a kick out of tracking filming locations, and Ed Speleers' fight scenes in 'Outlander' are a fun one to talk about. Most of the intense close-combat and outdoor battle work you see him in was filmed in Scotland — the show leans heavily on real Scottish landscapes, moors, castles, and estates to sell that 18th-century atmosphere. The production base is around Glasgow, so a lot of the stunt rehearsals, studio work for tighter shots, and build-outs for wounded camps or small skirmishes happen on soundstages and nearby stunt yards. When the camera opens up and you get those sweeping, muddy, weather-beaten battle images, those are usually filmed on location at the kind of wide open Scottish fields and historic properties the show loves to use.

Beyond studio and stunt-lot work, 'Outlander' famously uses real castles and estates as stand-ins for its fictional locations, and that extends to the battle staging. Places like Hopetoun House, Doune Castle, Blackness Castle, and various estates and moorlands in central and southern Scotland frequently double for the show’s battlegrounds, and the production brings in hundreds of extras, horses, and practical effects teams to make everything feel lived-in and chaotic. For Ed Speleers’ character, the fight scenes that look raw and messy were often done in those sprawling outdoor locations, with the production taking advantage of real terrain to make fights feel unpredictable and risky. Close-up grappling, sword work, and stunt-heavy moments would then cut back to the controlled environments near Glasgow where safety and multiple camera angles are easier to manage.

There’s also the bit people forget: the show sometimes films sequences meant to be in North America in other locations, depending on the season, budget, and weather. That means some of the colonial-era skirmishes or staging areas you see could be filmed on different estates or even in completely different regions that match the visual needs. But Ed’s core battle scenes — the ones that feel gritty and grounded — were predominantly shot in Scotland with a blend of on-location setups and studio-based stunt shoots. As a fan, I always appreciate how the mix of real landscapes and careful stunt choreography gives the clashes a tangible weight; you can tell the cast and crew put real effort into making every swing and tumble believable. Watching Ed Speleers in those sequences, you feel the unpredictability and grit of the world they’re recreating, which is why those scenes stuck with me long after the credits rolled.