About Outlandish Experience

Outlandish Experience is built around small-group, story-driven travel — the kind of days that feel personal, unhurried, and genuinely Scottish.

Whether you’re here for Outlander, the landscape, the history, or all of the above, our aim is the same: thoughtful routes, warm guiding, and days that feel carefully crafted rather than rushed.

What to expect

• How I Became a Scottish Tour Guide
• I never set out to become a tour guide. Like most people leaving school, I had no clear plan—so I followed an interest in history to the University of Edinburgh, studying Ancient History and archaeology. While the degree itself didn’t lead directly to a job, the experience of being there quietly shaped everything that came next.
• In 2012, short on cash and scanning student job boards, I stumbled across a listing looking for someone to leap from Edinburgh’s dark closes and scare passers-by. Two months—and one very loud audition scream—later, I was racing through the Old Town dressed as monks, skeletons and witches, beginning what would become a long-term career in Scottish storytelling. I worked my way up to Senior Guide, leading ghost tours and discovering that entertaining people with history and drama didn’t feel like work at all.
• Looking for daytime guiding, I set my sights on broader Scottish tourism and eventually joined a driver-guide company, spending years criss-crossing the country: castles, distilleries, glens, islands and Highland roads became my office. Along the way, a stint as a supporting artist on a historical film inspired a new personal brand—The Tartan Viking—and a growing social media following.
• By 2020, I was ready to strike out on my own, buying a bus and planning private tours… just as lockdown brought the world to a halt. I used the pause to regroup, build new ideas, and launch what would become my own touring operation once travel resumed. From my first official multi-day trip in 2021, the business grew rapidly—guiding guests everywhere from the Borders to Shetland and creating bespoke journeys across the Highlands and Islands.
• After more than a decade on the road, new priorities led me to step away from that company in 2025—but not from guiding. With nearly fourteen years of experience and a lifelong love of Scottish history, film and folklore, my focus turned to building something fresh: Outlandish Experience—a tour company celebrating Scotland through the lens of cinema, television and epic storytelling.
• This is the journey that shaped me: from student historian to ghost, driver-guide, Viking, business owner—and still, at heart, a storyteller on the road.