Etymology of Ghillie Brogue?

[Wandering Spark]

Does anyone know the etymology of the word 'ghillie' as it's used to refer to the style of brogue? I know it is commonly assumed to come from the Scottish Gaelic gillie meaning male attendant to a Highland chief or more recently, hunting guide, but I can't find a historical source for this claim. None of the Scottish dress history books I have checked use the word ghillie or gillie to refer to a type of shoe.

Interestingly, none of the 19th c. sources I've read call these shoes ghillie brogues either. In The Clans of the Scottish Highlands published 1845, Robert McIan's illustration for Chisholm has ghillie brogues; James Logan's description of them simply says, “The Brogs are of a pattern frequently worn by gentlemen.”
The Book of the Club of True Highlanders published in 1880 has an illustration of a ghillie brogue which the text simply refers to as a "modern bròg". Carmichael's 1894 glossary of Gaelic shoe terms does not mention ghillie brogues.

My inability to find historical uses of the term ghillie brogue makes me wonder if it's a relatively recent name. Does anyone know of any 19th c. texts that refer to shoes as ghillie brogues or ghillies?

Books Checked:
Old Irish and Highland Dress by H.F. McClintock, published 1943
History of highland dress by John Telfer Dunbar, published 1964
The costume of Scotland by John Telfer Dunbar, published 1981
A short history of the Scottish dress by Richard Manisty Demain Grange, published 1967
Scottish National Dictionary here

Carmichael's 1894 glossary is in this article: https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.028.136.150

[John_Carrick]

I'm no expert but the word Gillie in Irish means servant, such as in the name Gillespie, the servant of the bishop

[figheadair]

What an interesting question. One might have supposed that this term arose in second half of the 19th century and whilst there are examples depicted in McIan's (1847) and Macleay's (1870) works, they do not mention them as such. I suspect that this was a kilt shop term that quickly found favour as evidence by this article about ladies' wear from the The Bystander - Wednesday 05 August 1925.



OC Richard has a large collection of retailers' catalogues. It will be interesting to hear the earliest reference they give.

My Paisley's of Glasgow 1939 catalogue describes the style of brogue as Box Calf Lacing which suggests that the term was not universal at that time.

[Wandering Spark]

My Paisley's of Glasgow 1939 catalogue describes the style of brogue as Box Calf Lacing which suggests that the term was not universal at that time.

It's really interesting that the term was still not universal that late, especially since it had made it to the US by then.

The Winter 1932 Sears catalog has a woman's fashion shoe which is obviously inspired by the ghillie brogue:

Sears was an American company which made affordable versions of trendy fashions. The fact that they described the ghillie as having "taken the country by storm," implies that it was a recognized shoe style in the US in 1931.

The fact that the Bystander calls them ghillies' brogues with an S and apostrophe implies that the name is derived from them being worn by ghillies or at least the belief that ghillies wore them. I haven't seen much evidence that 19th-century ghillies actually wore ghillie brogues, but that might not matter.

The Book of the Club of True Highlanders calls John Eldar's c.1543 description of going hunting and then making ankle boots from the freshly slain deer's hide a description of "the manner in which the ancient bròg was made," and on the same page also says "the modern bròg [. . .] is simply a more elaborate specimen of handicraft". If someone who couldn't really understand Eldar's 16th c. Scots read that page, they might believe that the modern cross-lacing brogue really was basically the same as the 16th c. deerskin cuaran made while hunting. (In the late 19th c., some Highland brogues were made of deerskin (Mackay and Carmichael 1894).) If that person only knew the word 'ghillie' as meaning 'hunting guide', a brogue style historically made while hunting could therefore be a 'ghillie's brogue.'

(The Book of the Club of True Highlanders is wrong about the history of brogues, but that's off-topic of this post.)

[figheadair]

The Winter 1932 Sears catalog has a woman's fashion shoe which is obviously inspired by the ghillie brogue:

Sears was an American company which made affordable versions of trendy fashions. The fact that they described the ghillie as having "taken the country by storm," implies that it was a recognized shoe style in the US in 1931.

It also implies that it was a new women's fashion. Obviously based on the male shoe, it may further reinforce the idea that the term itself was fairly recent.

[OC Richard]

So I just now went through all my old catalogues, and here's what I found

Leckie Graham 1907
No shoes are mentioned.
Illustrated for Evening Dress are four Mary Janes (quicker to type than "instep strap buckle brogues") and one 18th century style shoe. Illustrated for Day Dress are spats.

Lawrie (illustration dated 1926)
"Box calf with buckles and straps or lacing latchets."
Illustrated are an interesting shoe I had previously only seen in The Highlanders of Scotland, sort of halfway between Mary Janes and Ghillies.

Fraser Ross (illustrations are in the style of the 1920s)
No shoes listed.
Illustrated for Evening Dress are slip-on buckle loafers and Mary Janes.
No Day Dress shoes shown.

Andersons 1936
"Patent Brogues, either lacing or buckling."
Illustrated with Evening Dress are Ghillies with buckles.

Paisleys 1936
"Box calf lacing brogues" listed.
Illustrated are ordinary brogues, brogues with flaps, and Mary Janes.

Rowans 1938
Illustrated are Ghillies with buckles, slip-on buckle loafers, and Mary Janes for Evening, ordinary brogues for Day.
All are simply listed as "brogues".

RW Forsyth (illustrations are in the style of the 1950s)
"Buckled brogues" and "lacing brogues" listed.
Ghillies without buckles are shown worn in Evening Dress (the first occurrence of such).

Tartan Gift Shop (Edinburgh) (illustrations in the style of the early 1960s)
No shoes listed.
Illustrated are plain brown brogues for Day Dress and Ghillies without buckles for Evening Dress.

Geoffrey Tailor 1983
"Ghillie brogues: day, heavy; day/evening, medium; evening, light."

(When I bought my first pair of Ghillies in 1976 the shop carried the Keltic brand, and I was offered two weights.)

(This 1983 Geoffrey Tailor is the earliest catalogue I have offering what we now call "semi-dress" sporrans, which they call "day/evening" sporrans.)

[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.