Scotland’s last shoemaking shop to be restored decades after it closed

A community group is being awarded funds to restore what is said to be Scotland’s last remaining shoemaker’s shop.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is providing the Birse Community Trust with £74,500 to help it conserve and re-open the building – which is said to have lain “completely undisturbed” for decades after it ceased trading.

The Souter’s Shop – souter is the Scottish word for a shoemaker or cobbler – was opened in the Aberdeenshire village of Birse in 1897 by local man James Merchant, with the business operating from there, with the help of his son, until the 1940s.

When the business shut down, its tools, ledgers and fittings remained untouched, as if frozen in time.

The building was rediscovered in 1999, with Toni Watt, manager at the Birse Community Trust, describing the property as being “such a special place”.

She added: “To enter the souter’s feels like you are stepping back in time. It is a window into a now disappeared way of life, showcasing the life of a souter and his role in rural society.”

Listed as a category A building in 2000, the Souter’s Shop is recognised as nationally significant and the only known example of its kind in Scotland – with the building and its contents said to show a world before commercial, mass-produced shoemaking became prevalent.

Dr Susan O’Connor, head of grants at HES, said: “The Souter’s Shop in Birse is a fascinating building with an important story to tell.”

The project has been awarded funding from the HES Historic Environment Grants (HEG) programme, with the money going to help to repair and conserve the property – which needs repairs carried out to its roof, timbers, chimney, and joinery.

However, it is planned that the interior of the building will be opened up to visitors on site and across the globe, with a virtual exhibition and online tour proposed.

The funding will also support traditional skills, with the shop’s features to be restored using techniques similar to those employed when it was originally built.

Speaking for HES, Dr O’Connor said: “We are excited to support the trust’s efforts to unlock this story with the community and the wider public.

“Our historic environment is one of Scotland’s greatest assets, but it needs care, investment and collaboration to thrive.

“Our grants programmes are available to help communities unlock the history, knowledge and progress that is embodied in the built heritage around them.”

Work is now starting to train volunteers to not only pack and decant the collection of artefacts contained within the Souter’s Shop but to carry out basic conservation work, with repair works on the premises due to begin in spring 2026.

Ms Watt said the Birse Community Trust is “absolutely delighted to receive such generous funding from Historic Environment Scotland”.

She added: “This grant, together with support from other funders and from many individuals, means that we are able to start work to save the Souter’s Workshop and Shop.”

Ms Watt continued: “At one time, every settlement would have had a souter; our visitors tell us about grandparents who were souters, but in a few more generations this tradition will be lost from memory.

“History, oral history and saving the rural architecture where this history takes place matters so much.”