The generally beloved and always friendly leading actress of Outlander (2014–2026), Caitríona Balfe, received negative news last week. There was a lot of commotion after the Irish allegedly made insulting comments about Scotland and especially about the village of Shotts. However, it is now clear that Balfe did not suddenly “go on the insulting tour” at all, but that an unfortunate editing of an interview took her statements out of context.
The worst shooting location
The commotion arose after Balfe spoke about this during an interview Outlander was asked about the worst filming location in the series. She also called Shotts, a village just outside Glasgow, a miserable place. That statement caused considerable anger among residents of the village who felt that Balfe insulted the entire community. Local residents and politicians then emphasized that Shotts is known as a very close-knit community and that the actress is doing the village a disservice with her comment.
According to local media, the recordings were indeed difficult at the time. For example, the production is said to have had to deal with nuisance from young people, problems on the set and other poor conditions at the filming location. However, according to residents, Balfe still did not have the right to trash the entire village.
An old garbage dump
It now appears that everything is different than initially thought. Gold Derby, the platform that posted the interview with Balfe, is said to have accidentally deleted an important part of Balfe’s answer during editing. In the full conversation, the actress made it clear that she didn’t mean the entire village of Shotts, but just one specific filming location. According to Balfe, it was an old garbage dump that looked a bit like a swamp. The cast filmed there for over a week while the sets were constantly disrupted.
Gold Derby eventually removed the video from social media and apologized to Balfe, the residents of Shotts and everyone involved. This has somewhat rectified the situation, although the ruling remains widely discussed online.
8.3 Watch on Netflix • The series “Outlander” follows the life of Claire Randall *(Caitriona Balfe), a happily married nurse who mysteriously disappears shortly after World War II and awakens in 1743 Scotland.
Image: Still ‘Outlander’ via TMDb
