Ghillie brogues - why the dislike and resentment..?

[OC Richard]

square dancing actually.

With Scottish Country Dancing you're up on your toes whenever you're in motion, which is why the dancing Ghillies are so thin and flexible. They don't really have soles per se.

Now with Square Dancing the whole foot can be in contact with the floor right? So you'll probably want actual shoes with some kind of soles.

Actually back in the 1980s when I was an avid Country Dancer my partner and I were out at a folk festival and we joined in with the Square Dancers. Seemed to us that the two kinds of dancing had all the same basic sorts of steps, though they called them different names. Once we learned what names went with our familiar steps we had no problem following the caller.

And we thought "how cool would it be to have a caller in Scottish Country Dancing!"

Because we have fixed dances that we have to learn and memorise in advance.