Which Scenes In Culloden Outlander Were Historically Filmed?

If you mean the Battle of Culloden as seen in 'Outlander', versus the older film 'Culloden' by Peter Watkins, there’s a neat split in how and where things were shot — and I love geeking out about both. For the TV series 'Outlander', the production leaned on Scotland’s real landscape for some of the most memorable exteriors: many of the wide, haunting moor shots, the scenes of the Jacobite lines forming and moving, and the stark aftermath visuals were staged on or very near the real Culloden Moor. The National Trust for Scotland’s Culloden Battlefield (near Inverness) was used for key exterior filming, especially those sweeping, windswept sequences that sell the scale and tragedy of the battle. You can actually spot the monument and the layout of the moor in several wide-angle and moving-camera shots, which is part of why those scenes feel so raw and immediate.

That said, not everything that looks like Culloden on screen was filmed right on the battlefield itself. A lot of close-quarter action, interior tent scenes, and stylised shots were handled on sets or on other Highland locations that could be dressed to stand in for various parts of 18th-century camp life. The show also used places like Doune Castle, Culross, and several other Scottish sites for castle and village exteriors — so when you're watching an emotional conversation or an intimate indoor scene immediately before or after the battle, odds are good it was on a set or at a different location. The production mix of on-site moor filming and controlled set work lets 'Outlander' toggle between epic, documentary-feeling panoramas and tight, character-driven moments without losing the historical vibe.

If you’re talking about the 1964 docu-drama 'Culloden' by Peter Watkins, that’s a different but related piece of cinema history. Watkins famously shot much of his film on the actual Culloden Moor, using the landscape itself as a major storytelling device. His reconstruction of the 1746 battle intentionally foregrounds the real place — the film plays like a faux-live news report of the day, and filming on the moor gave it a gritty authenticity that still lands hard. In both the film and the series, the choice to use the real location (even if only for exteriors) adds a big emotional kick: you can tell the terrain and light contribute to the storytelling in a way recreated sets usually can’t.

Bottom line: for 'Outlander', many of the big exterior battle and aftermath shots were filmed at or very near the real Culloden Battlefield, while tighter, indoor, and some action sequences were filmed elsewhere or on set. For Watkins’ 'Culloden', the moor itself is a central filming location and plays into the film’s documentary feel. I’ve walked that moor and seeing those scenes play out on screen after being there gives them extra weight — it’s one of those places where history and storytelling really collide, and it always gets to me.