Hillsborough will be home to a weekend of Scottish activities as the Outlandish Hillsborough festival begins on Saturday, October 12.

The festival, which is held by the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough and the Ayr Mount Historic Site, will celebrate the Scottish history and heritage of the town as well as the popular book and television series ‘Outlander.’

The Ayr Mount property will be the site of the family-friendly festivities over the two days. Saturday will be the Cèilidh Ayr, which will feature traditional Scottish storytelling, music and dances. Sunday’s Outlandish Ayr will celebrate the series’ connections to North Carolina and Hillsborough, featuring reenactments, readings, and a photo booth. On both days, Scottish food and local Hillsborough businesses will be on-site.

Hillsborough mayor Tom Stevens explained the history of the Ayr Mount mansion during a conversation with WCHL. The Kirkland family, who owned the house for decades, immigrated to the state in the late 1780s.

“Ayr Mount was built about the same time Thomas Jefferson was building Monticello during the early-frontier, post-colonial days,” said Stevens. “That property stayed with the Kirkland family up until the late 20th century when it was bought by [a third party] who has ultimately made the property open to the public.”

Despite originally being set in Scotland, both the ‘Outlander’ book and television series follow its main characters to a fictional community set in North Carolina. This fits with the state’s history of Scottish immigration, with around 50,000 Highland Scots settling in North Carolina during the mid-18th century.

“[The series] talks about colonial-era days when the regulators were here, which is exactly what was happening in Hillsborough,” Stevens said. “So it’ll be looking at what life was like when the story of ‘Outlander’ is taking place.”

The festival will hold a screening of ‘Braveheart’ at the Main Library in Hillsborough on Friday, October 11. The film will begin at 6:30 and the event is free to the public, though intended for adults.

To attend Outlandish Hillsborough, tickets must be bought from their website before the festival begins. The organizers encourage visitors to park on-site, but after parking is full, complimentary shuttles will be available to take people from downtown to Ayr Mount. Both days of the fesitval will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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