Footwear in Highlanders of Scotland

[davidlpope]

These look perhaps like Peale and Co. shoes. I had a pair of Brooks Brothers brogues by them that looked very similar in terms of the toe box and brogueing pattern.

[figheadair]

This pair is roughly contemporary with Macleay's pulication and are a rare surviving example. They were part of the uniform of the Glasgow Celtic Society.

[OC Richard]

Those look deliberately old-fashioned or "retro" as we would say today, a mid-19th century revival of 18th century shoes.

As you probably know the shoes of the 18th century, which had a functional buckle system, by the 1830s had evolved, the exposed portion of the top of the foot plunging lower and lower, to the point that it must have been possible to slip the shoes on rather than needing to buckle them.

One does see in THOS shoes which appear to be made like 18th century shoes rather than the then-current style.

Here are the super-low-cut shoes, which I believe to be slip-on shoes with nonfunctional buckles, in around the same period that THOS portraits were painted.

[Jacques]

Richard,
Were do you find these photos?

[OC Richard]

I'm a photo lover!

There are people who love texts, documentation. I want to see photos. Photos don't lie, as they say.

I regularly look over Ebay for vintage photos and I've grown a pretty good collection of original photos.

But many of my images are just things I've come across online.

[Jacques]

i never thought of collecting old photos as "a thing" before joining this forum. But earlier this month i came across an online collector of militaria from Eastern Canada and now i'm collecting WW1 postcards (well, three so far) of young soldiers in their highland regiment uniforms before sailing off to France. So i'm collecting a piece of history, pretty cool.

[The Q]

The problem with most evidence is the fact that the photographs or paintings are of the wealthy or well off in best dress. Not what the Highlanders would have worn

I'm reading another book on the building of the Kyle line, built 1870( final 10 miles separately 1897)
The very few kilts are aristocracy or at the formal openings.
More importantly The shots of navvies, railway staff and people almost all show the men wearing what today would be called hob nailed boots.

I'm guessing that for many working men by those dates if footwear was worn then hob nailed boots would have been the most common attire, kilted or not.

[OC Richard]

My feeling is that I would much rather study a photo of what a man wore as he stood in front of a camera, than make guesses about what he and other men might have worn at other times and places.

Then again, I'm a visual person! Show me a photo, or a painting.

It's why with historical military uniforms I'm disinterested in uniform regulations. The documents tell you what was supposed to be worn, photos tell you what actually was worn.

[Jacques]

The postcards or photos i have gathered or viewed online are of young men proudly having their photos taken in their new uniforms prior to embarking for France during The Great War. With the exception of a few "props" i see no reason to believe these soldiers are wearing anything other than their best. i have found one reference that some soldiers, still awaiting issue of kilt or other bits and pieces borrowing same (for a small fee) from their mates and rushing into town to have photos taken to send to their families.

Jacques

[gun eagal]

To my certain knowledge, I was one of a minority who wore shoes-----albeit hand-me-downs----- to the local school in the Highlands in the 1940's. No one appeared to think anything about it.

Pipe Major William Lawrie, the famous composer who died in WWI, worked at a slate quarry near Ballachulish before the war. I was told by one of his descendants that he carried his boots to the quarry so that walking to and from work wouldn't put extra wear on them. As a side note, as tunes came to him while working he would write them out on the slates in chalk.