TVGuide.com recently traveled across the pond to the Scotland set of Outlander! Our first stop upon arriving in the country's capital was the famous Edinburgh Castle. During the show's time period and the Jacobite Rising the castle was under siege by the Brits.

Beautiful Doune Castle stands in for the fictional Castle Leoch. According to our tour guide, only the exterior was filmed due to the fragility of the structure originally built in 1390. The tourist attraction was shut down for a month in November and then resumed after the winter for three weeks in March. Word quickly spread amongst the book's legion of fans, and visitors have since come from as far as San Francisco and Australia. From January through August this year, approximately 40,000 people have visited with the numbers up 15 percent thanks to the show.

Doune Castle was also the location for the Stark family home Winterfell in the Game of Thrones pilot, but is most famous for being used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Fun Fact: Historic Scotland has a 999-year lease on the property, which began in 1984, from the Earl of Moray.

Because of Scotland's Freedom to Roam law, shooting the exterior of the castle sometimes proved challenging because any local (or visitor) could technically wander onto the set. For that reason, production tried to keep filming relatively quiet (and secretive).

We also stopped in at Anthony Haines textiles where the Outlander tartan is manufactured just for the show. Costume designer Terry Dresbach explained, "We wanted to be as authentic and true as possible, [but] a lot of the research and actual clothing was wiped out by the war at the time so there isn't a tremendous amount to be found." Ultimately, they looked to the environment for inspiration with color and texture.

The colors here, which aren't used for the show, represent the much more modern idea of Scottish tartan.

Ádhamh ÓBroin, the Gaelic instructor on set, helps vet the accuracy of the language in the script and also teaches the cast. Ironically, the one person who came into the show with some Gaelic-speaking skills, star Caitriona Balfe, doesn't speak it on the series. Adhamh gave me my own lesson and taught me how to count to 10 and introduce myself!

Executive producer Ronald D. Moore's favorite set piece is the Castle Leoch's Great Hall from Episode 4's clan gathering for the oath-taking. "We filled it with a couple hundred extras all in their fine regalia and it was lit and beautiful," he said. "It was challenging, just the construction took a long time, and it might be the biggest set I've built in my career."