Etymology of Ghillie Brogue?

[Wandering Spark]

It's really interesting that the name ghillie seems to have been broadly applied to the women's fashion shoe before it was broadly applied to the Scottish brogue.

It's also interesting that ghillie brogues weren't standardly marketed as an evening shoe until the second half of the 20th century. Prince Albert certainly seemed to think they were evening attire in 1853. (Not that I consider Prince Albert any kind of authority on Scottish dress.)

detail from 'Evening at Balmoral Castle' by Carl Haag
You can't see Alexander Hamilton Gordon's feet in the final painting, but in Haag's study for Evening at Balmoral Castle, Gordon is also wearing ghillie brogues with evening attire.


Of course, based on this c.1860 photo of Waller Hugh Paton and the number of brown ghillie brogues in The Highlanders of Scotland, not everyone in the 19th c. considered them evening shoes.

[OC Richard]

What a lovely painting of Alexander Hamilton Gordon.

Is this the earliest that Ghillies are seen on the feet of any actual people besides the Allen brothers?

(Not counting the fantasy illustrations done in the 1840s by Robert Jones and the Allen brothers themselves.)

[Wandering Spark]

What a lovely painting of Alexander Hamilton Gordon.

Is this the earliest that Ghillies are seen on the feet of any actual people besides the Allen brothers?

(Not counting the fantasy illustrations done in the 1840s by Robert Jones and the Allen brothers themselves.)

It's the earliest I know of.

Speaking of the Allen brothers, I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of The Costume of the Clans. It's in a library special collection, so I didn't have a lot of time with it, but I didn't see the term 'ghillie brogue' in there either. The Allen brothers referred to the ghillie-brogue-esque footwear in their illustrations as brogues that were 'laced with straps.' They did seem to have multiple sources for their belief in the historicity of brogues laced with straps. I'll have to look and see whether I can confirm the existence of those sources.

(I wish more people realized that the illustrations from The clans of the Scottish Highlands were not credible depictions of historical Scottish dress. I have seen too many people use them on reenactment and historical costuming websites.)

[Wandering Spark]

The Allen brothers referred to the ghillie-brogue-esque footwear in their illustrations as brogues that were 'laced with straps.' They did seem to have multiple sources for their belief in the historicity of brogues laced with straps. I'll have to look and see whether I can confirm the existence of those sources.

Update: As I'm sure no one will be surprised to learn, the Allen brothers' "sources" for brogues laced with straps are alleged works of art from the 17th and 18th centuries which no one else has been able to locate. John Telfer Dunbar thinks it's unlikely that these works of art ever existed.