Ghillie brogues - why the dislike and resentment..?

[Jock Scot]

Setting aside for a moment the fact that, at least in iconography, we can't trace Ghillie Brogues further back than the Allen Brothers and Robert Jones, let's just look at how often they're seen at one event, Oban.

Here are six images, the exact dates of some of them not known to me.

We're going from around 1930 up to fairly recently.

Note than in the interwar years Ghillies are fairly common, but began falling from favour in the post-WWII era.

Also notice how the fawn and oatmeal hose of the interwar years have given way to the Lovats in the 1950s which have been recently joined by darker and stronger colours.

Despite these details, the overall gestalt is that Traditional Highland Dress hasn't changed much over the last century.

I think that you have the picture time line about right there OCR, perhaps the top left one might be a tad earlier, but not enough to matter. Going off topic a tad, it’s interesting and striking that the headwear is common in all the pictures. I see a “deer stalker” as an exception, in one of the pictures but generally the bonnet choice is a common choice for nearly all of those marching. These days I suspect the front rank of a similar march today would wear a bonnet and the following ranks, even in inclement weather would be mostly bare-headed.