Sam Heughan and co-star Caitriona Balfe have shared many on-screen smooches as Jamie and Claire Fraser… but the actor’s first kiss was many years ago in a small village in south-west Scotland

Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe on set (Image: Outlander_Starz/Instagram)

Outlander star Sam Heughan has offered an intriguing glimpse into his younger self – and revealed he was even something of a Highland warrior at primary school!

The 42-year-old has written a memoir inspired by a tough solo adventure on the 96-mile West Highland Way walking trail. In it, he looks back on his life and also writes movingly about his connection to the spectacular Scottish landscape.

Heughan spent his formative years in rural Dumfries and Galloway in the south-west of Scotland. He attended Kells Primary School in the small village of New Galloway.

The Scottish Express had a sneak preview of Waypoints which includes a short section on young Sam’s school pals Frankie, Kirsty, Annie and Christopher.

Annie was his “best friend” and – although neither of the would have known it at the time – she also achieved an honour that would make millions of Outlander fans jealous by sharing a first kiss with the future Jamie Fraser.

Heughan writes: “I just felt very comfortable in her company. Annie was quite a tomboy. Like me, she enjoyed being outdoors in wellies. We grew up together in so many ways, and that included our first kiss when we were about ten. It was pure experimentation for us, part of a game. Sleeping Beauty and the prince. A king and his queen. We trusted each other. It felt daring, weird, funny, exciting and foolish – a glimpse of a world that awaited us – and then we just went back to being damn good friends.”

The actor says he “didn’t have much confidence in myself” at school as he felt that he stood out as he was very tall and wore an “NHS pair [of glasses] with thick lenses”. He also says he was “slightly on the chubby side, as well as very sensitive”.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself – as a “rowdy, confident kid” named Frazer found out when he told young Sam to “get out of my way, freak” in the school lavatory.

Heughan writes: “All he did was shove me, but that was enough for me to respond – unaware of my own strength, perhaps – and throw him against the urinals.”

Sam and Frazer became friends from that moment on and the adult Heughan reflects that he “never saw him pick on anyone again”.

Sam later moved to Edinburgh with his mother Chrissie and brother Cirdan (their father walked out on the family) and he has lost touch with those early pals. “I love what I do, but that has made it hard to put down roots,” he writes.