Outlander star Sam Heughan sees his fortune soar after successful 2018

Outlander star Sam Heughan's fortune has soared thanks to the success of the hit fantasy series.

The heart-throb Scots actor has seen his wealth rise to more than £1.3million since gathering a global following playing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser in the drama.

The ‘Outlander’ effect has been credited with boosting Scotland’s economy as the number of visitors to historic sites topped five million for the first time in 2017 with fans flocking to see filming locations for the show.

Outlander star Sam Heughan. Picture: John Devlin/The Scotsman

And it seems its popularity has also boosted Heughan’s bank balance after his company posted an impressive set of results.

Accounts filed at Companies House for his firm Cairn Mor Creative show it had total assets of £1,588,252 for 2018.

After paying off creditors to the tune of almost £260,000, the company reported shareholder funds of £1,329,053.

That is a rise of almost £600,000 on the previous year when the firm was valued at £729,620. In 2016 it was worth just £87,625.

Heughan, 38, set up the company, which is based in Surrey, in April, 2015, after he finished filming the first season of Outlander.

He plays charismatic Highlander Jamie Fraser in the show, which charts the adventures of Claire Randall, a former Second World War combat nurse played by Irish actress Caitriona Balfe.

Randall is on a second honeymoon to Scotland with her husband Frank in 1945 when she is mysteriously transported back in time to 1743. It is here, on the cusp of the Jacobite rising, that she meets the dashing Fraser.

Heughan, who was born in New Galloway, Dumfries and Galloway, spent his teenage years in Edinburgh before going on to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

His part in David Greig’s Outlying Islands in 2002 saw him nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award as most promising new performer.

Other early roles included parts in River City, Midsomer Murders and the BBC soap opera Doctors, before Heughan landed his big break in Outlander in 2013.

The fitness fanatic is also the founder of the My Peak Challenge movement. Its thousand of members follow a fitness challenge progamme and raise money for blood cancer research charity Bloodwise.