Child’s Shoes
Gairloch Museum

School pictures from the turn of the last century show most children in the Gairloch area without shoes.  That is not because they didn’t have any footwear.  But shoes were expensive and were to be kept for special occasions, not worn out by every day activity.    

On the outskirts of Gairloch there is a stone called Clach nam Brog – the shoe stone.  It is so called because people walking barefoot from Poolewe to attend Sunday service in Gairloch would stop at the stone to put their shoes and stockings on before reaching the church.