Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan Call ‘Outlander’s Return to Scotland “A Real Homecoming”

Outlander has finally returned. The celebrated show has finally returned to Starz and series leads Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) have finally returned home to Lallybroch. When we last left Jamie, Claire, and Young Ian (John Bell) in Outlander Season 7 Episode 8, they had just spotted the coast of Scotland after years away. Now we’ll get to watch Jamie, Claire, and Young Ian finally set foot again on Scottish soil and reunite with loved ones.

As Outlander star Caitriona Balfe herself told Decider, it’s a “super romantic” reunion for everyone involved.

“I think for Jamie and Claire, coming back to Scotland is a real homecoming,” Balfe said. “It’s where they fell in love.”

“Even though they’re building a new life in America, it’s in their bones, this place.”

Outlander fans first visited Lallybroch all the way back in Season 1, when a young James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser brought his new bride home to meet his sister Jenny (Laura Donnelly). We learn that the house’s true name is Broch Tuarach and that the estate was something of a wedding gift for Jamie’s parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie.

The last Outlander fans have seen of the Fraser family home on the show has been during the 1980s, when Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin) have dived into renovations to restore the house to its previous brilliance. When Claire, Jamie, and Young Ian arrive in the 18th century, however, Lallybroch will still be at its romantic peak.

“The beauty of doing such a long running show is that you get to revisit things that people have lived with for years,” Balfe said. “Even us as actors, I think it’s probably been about four or five years since we were in that set. So to return, there’s always that moment of when you first walk in and you’re like, ‘My god.’ You know, you remember the tapestry and you remember, ‘My god, that’s where we did that scene there.'”

“There’s all of these memories imbued in these sets for us as well as for the characters. So it just felt really special.”

Sam Heughan agreed with Balfe, but pointed out that “the whole return to Scotland is very bittersweet.”

“It’s Jamie putting things to rest. You know, finishing off unfinished business before he can return back to America, which is now his new home,” Heughan said.”But as Caitriona said, there’s a huge part of these characters that still always yearns to be back in Lallybroch.”

Claire and Jamie aren’t the only Outlander characters going home to Lallybroch. Young Ian was born and raised in the home and Outlander star John Bell told Decider, “it was a joy to go back to Lallybroch,” where father Old Ian (Steven Cree) and mother Jenny (now played by Kristin Atherton) have been this whole time.

“That’s where this journey started for me, you know. So to kind of revisit it and go back after all these years and almost reflect as well on how far, not just Ian’s come, but I’ve come as well,” Bell said. “It was a really, really powerful and emotional moment.”

“I love when the show is in Scotland. I think we all do. It’s where we fell in love with that. So to return home and was that was a joy, truly.”

You can return to Lallybroch with Claire and Jamie right now by streaming Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 “Unfinished Business” on the Starz app.

Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 “Unfinished Business” premieres tonight at 8:00 PM ET/PT on Starz.