A Portal to Our Past

immerse yourself in the story of a Souter and his shoes in 1940s rural Aberdeenshire

In 1941 the Ballogie Souter’s Workshop closed its doors. It wasn’t until a few years ago, when Birse Community Trust took stewardship of it, that the door was reopened. What it revealed was a portal to the past, untouched and preserved as a moment in time in rural Aberdeenshire.

With the building in need of fabric repairs in 2026, a programme of complementary works is taking / took place to add stories to this unique archive and treasure-trove of the past.

At the heart of that work is the development of interactive experiences that allow you – the visitor to this site – to walk around the building, immerse yourself in the stories of a souter and his shoes, and explore how we can learn from the past to inform the future.

Immersive Experience

The Soutar’s Shop is a remarkable ‘time capsule’ and attracted a good deal of press attention when it was found in 1999. While such rural soutar’s shops were widespread in Scotland until little over a hundred years ago, the Ballogie Soutar’s Shop appears to be the only one that still survives intact in rural Scotland.

Enter

Thanks to all our funders who have made the Souter’s Workshop project possible, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, The Garfield Weston Foundation, Museums Galleries Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council, The Strathmartine Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, The Architectural Heritage Fund and numerous generous individual donations of money and volunteer time. Thank you.