Hand-made Culloden Shoes (Straight-lasted) with Matching Buckle

The Culloden Shoe is absolutely typical to the early-to-mid 18th century and at the battle it is without doubt that a very high percentage of the footwear worn on the 16th April 1746 by The Highland Army was in fact taken as booty after a year of successful campaigning against German George's Hanoverian army.

These shoes were of course not the only footwear worn at 'The Last Highland Charge' and it has to be accepted that many highlanders went about their business barefoot, especially the tenant farmers and herders that constituted the third ranks of the Highland regiments. Many improvised with rabbit skins and leather thongs, furside inwards.

There were many different variations of round toes, square toes, slightly raised heels, flat heels, long tongued, shorter tongued and so on. Some shoes had the leather smoothside out whilst it was perhaps more common to see the leather with the suede, or fleshside, out. A fair argument stands for both cases. One thing that you can be absolutely sure of is that all buckle shoes were straightlasted in those days. There were no left and no right heeled shoes either. That was unheard of until the end of the 18th century.

They were also made out of almost any animal skin that was both suitable and readily available although we have chosen to use a reasonably thick bovine skin as it is by far the most likely leather that would have been used.

The Culloden Shoe that we are presenting here represents an incredibly accurate replica. It is probably the most realistic shoe on offer anywhere in the world for the Jacobite campaigner.