Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish were part of a ceremony which honoured Outlander creator Diana Gabaldon with a Great Scot award.
The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA’s annual gala, A Celebration of Scotland’s Treasures, saw guests arrive for a glittering ceremony in New York City’s The Metropolitan Club earlier this month.
With more than 50 million readers worldwide and a successful TV show inspired by her work, the bestselling author was honoured for promoting Scotland.
Actors Sam Heughan and Graham MacTavish, stars of the Starz television series Outlander, presented the award to Gabaldon virtually from the United Kingdom, where they were filming.
Speaking about the award, Graham said: "Now it's true that Diana herself is not Scottish, but I don't think any of us can deny that Diana has done more than almost anyone to promote Scotland, its history and culture, on the world stage over the past decade.
"For that reason, I think, and I am sure you will agree, that Diana is surely an honorary Scot – and now a Great one at that."
The presentation of the Great Scot Award was the highlight of the event, which this year raised $375,000 to support the conservation of heritage sites in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, including Culloden Battlefield and Robert Burns’s birthplace.
In accepting the award, Gabaldon made humorous and heartfelt remarks about the origins of her first novel, public reaction to the series, and her unanticipated role in preserving Scottish culture.
Gabaldon had never been to Scotland before writing Outlander, and she shared that the Gaelic phrases used in her early books came directly from a Gaelic-to-English dictionary.
After a Scottish scholar suggested as much, Diana developed a close relationship with him and incorporated more authentic phrasing in her later novels.
Today, the Outlander series is recognised as contributing to a revival of interest in the Gaelic language and Highland culture.
Kirstin Bridier, Executive Director of the Foundation, noted the parallels between Gabaldon’s role in promoting Gaelic and the work of 20th-century American folklorist Margaret Fay Shaw who, together with her British husband John Lorne Campbell, made early audio and video recordings of daily life in the Hebrides in order to capture the language, folksongs, and traditions of the islands before they were lost to time.
Providing access to Shaw’s remarkable collection, which is housed in her former home on the Isle of Canna, southwest of Skye, is the focus of the Foundation’s fundraising efforts this year.
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