Sporran and Shoe Color

[geomick]

much of the world calls it "futbol" and is confused by a sport called "football" where only 2 of the 20 or so named positions ever touch the ball with their foot

[jsrnephdoc]

Spoken like a true Scotsman, “outwith” a preposition almost exclusively used in Scotland.

Your post transported me back to the lost art of "diagramming" sentences and memories of my mom, who championed equally "prescriptive" and "descriptive" grammar, and of course from there to the 21st century practice of accepting whatever one finds in a cursory web search rather than learned from a real authority. So, wondering whether "outwith" was more properly considered a preposition or an adverb (and because my mom is no longer around to supply an informed decision, I popped open a new browser window, where I "learned"

Examples of outwith in a Sentence


Recent Examples on the Web


Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage.Read More

All of this is in preparation for Google restricting the installation of apps outwith the Google Play Store.— Ewan Spence, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2026

[NHhighlander]

...
wishing to conform totally to an accepted set of conventions derived from trusted sources, usually of a Scottish pedigree.
...
.

At our Highland Games, I was at the presentation by a gentleman whose business apparently is to sell fantastic calligraphic certificates of ancestry, with heraldics and all stuff, a sales pitch being the actual topic despite it being advertized as a presentation on Scottish Heraldry.

Whatever. Point is, I was saddened how attractive that proposition was, i.e., to be able to hang a terribly overpriced piece of art bearing the family name at the center, to the many people present, in registering a Name with the Lord Lyon. I mean, I am all for freedom of religion, and if that's what gets you going and it's not too creepy, well whatever, right, but. It was odd.

Why do people need that kind of public recognition of something as accidental and meaningless as their ancestry. Honor thy father and mother I get, and I do and I am grateful often and if I have any chagrin it is about not having done more while they were alive, but, my name? My ancestors were farmers, serfs, total nobodies, often persecuted as a change from just being taken advantage of, and, if anything, I am in kinship with the nameless and who toil and strive, even though I myself in the game of chance that life is don't have to anymore except by choice. Speaking of, gotta go see about the farm, planting for the main Fall crop will happen this week, besides tending the grapes.

[Jock Scot]

I use the word "outwith" daily in many contexts, it's not even something that I think about. Until now!

[Ivor]

There are a number of words specific to Scottish usage and I am not referring to the particular Scots language but their use points towards a Scottish background (unless simply the result of “ cutting and pasting”) as made clear by Jock Scot in his last post.
Advocate is another one where in England you would refer to a barrister or, presumably, attorney in the USA.

[Troglodyte]

On the other hand there are several portraits predating the raising of The Black Watch of civilians in Highland Dress all showing black shoes, and none showing brown shoes.



I think it dates from the sudden ubiquitousness of the white hose + Ghillies + black "semi dress" sporran + black Argyll/Prince Charlie kilt hire/pipe band costume beginning around 1980.



As far as I know it's one description from 1548, dredged up by the Allen Brothers, which led to their creating the modern Ghillie brogues for their personal costumes, and the "ancient" costume of Prince Edward.



As to the appearance of the 1548 footwear who can say, but they sound like unstructured moccasins rather than the built-up brogues of the Allen Brothers.



That's curious, isn't it? how all but one of the pairs of Ghillies in MacLeay are tan roughout leather (cf the identical shoes of Prince Edward's "ancient Highlander" costume).

Being that (IMHO) Ghillie brogues were a pseudo-ancient shoe created by Robert Jones and the Allen Brothers making them in rough tan hide fits.

I agree...

I have the impression that there were a range issues that came into play around the time of the Highland Revival, and a few enterprising individuals (the Allen brothers, Wilson weavers and others of their ilk) were happy to cash-in on the movement and give the buying public what they wanted.

However, there is a letter written to Henry VIII (the English king and brother-in-law to Scottish king James IV) by John Elder who gives a Highland priest's view of Highland dress as it was in 1543. This, and slightly later accounts by European court cosmographers, and French observers with auxiliaries in the Scottish conflicts of the period, are often quoted as they are consistent in various ways.

The several accounts that exist from about 1530 to 1600 are no doubt where our enterprising tradition-creators found their inspiration a couple of centuries later. Despite their obvious embelishments and myth-making, much of what they did has genuine authenticity.

The description of the crude footwear, or brog, seems to be the source of the style for later, more sophisticated forms of what we now call ghillie brogues.

Having had the chance to examine in close detail early 20th century, mid-19th century and 18th century shoes of different kinds (that is, those of fine and costly construction so as to be worth preserving) I can say it is fairly easy to reverse-engineer the development of the cobblers' craft. Highland souters would be making for a particular market, but the Highlanders' well-recorded dislike of shod feet in a constantly wet environment, and different accounts of Highland footwear, suggest that shoes of any kind were mostly worn only when necessary.

It seems that this necessity was viewed as temporary, for the task or journey immediately at hand, and the wearer-made brog with its wrap-around-the-foot and long-lacing style was disposable, to be discarded when the snows were gone or the journey made.

Interestingly, Edmund Burt observes that the new military roads that General Wade was building in the 1720s with a 'made' surface of compacted road-stone, found little favour with the Highlanders generally, as they were a pain to walk on, and caused their shoes to rip and tear. He notes that they would prefer to take a more arduous route across soft and wet ground as it was better for their feet.

It is interesting that the various forms of wooden-soled 'clog' that was common across virtually the whole of north-western Europe until the middle of last century (and are still made) was not taken-up in Scotland in the same way.

[Jock Scot]

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On the other hand Jock Scot has a black leather sporran which has been in his family for a long time.

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In the interests of accuracy. One of my cousins now has the black sporran in question. It is made from the skin of a crocodile which my grandfather shot in the 1920's. I wish I had it though!

Instead, I happily wear a very nice plain black leather sporran, usually with a black leather strap, both made by MacRostie of Glasgow. I wear it to almost nearly all kilted events that I attend.

[jsrnephdoc]

I'm guessing those photos are both of Prince Edward?

Assuming that's the case, perhaps the FIRST task of someone hoping to mimic his appearance would be to spend several months growing a beard. I score 100 (OK, 99) on that, having had it mowed only once, after a careless motorist broke my neck and my bicycle on Memorial Day, 2022. I've managed to sprout it again, and even return to cycling, with my only consequential injuries SINCE then entirely my fault.