Ghillie brogues - why the dislike and resentment..?

[OC Richard]

In the Manx Museum's folk life gallery there's a pair of Goat Skin Curranes that was made around 100 years ago (I need to date check they could even be 19th C) for an antiquarian by a man who had learned the skills to make them from his predecessors and then made them regularly until they were replaced by more modern shoes in a village that still spoke Gaelic in the early Century. They were made with the hair on the outside which points to their authenticity as being more authentically closer to the style in which they were made traditionally. Given the close historical connections between Mann and the Western Isles personally I feel this shoes probably is closer to a Highland Currane than a lot of other examples cited here.

That's really cool. Generally things in museums have little or no provenance (Dr Hugh Cheape formerly with National Museums Scotland drives this point home) so having such a clear provenance is super. Comparing these shoes with the Aran pamputai would give an impression as to earlier pan-Gaelic footwear dovetailing nicely with John Elder's 1542 description.

There's one glaring error with Ghillie Brogues from my perspective. They are all black.

Thistle Shoes (Scotland) does offer them in polished brown leather, and brown Ghillies are starting to get more popular in the piping world.

But for sure when we look the Ghillies in The Highlanders Of Scotland all but one pair are tan roughout leather, which suggests that at that time they were regarded as a rustic shoe.



However Victorian photos almost always show shiny Ghillies, apparently black, so who can say.