Centuries-old slipper found on Canna is preserved

[Neil]

Courtesy of BBC Online 30 June 2010

A shoe dating from the 17th Century found in a box under a bed on the island of Canna has been carefully preserved.The National Trust for Scotland, which owns the isle off Skye, said the artefact was so rare a storage box has been specially made to conserve it.

The mule, a type of backless footwear, was found with a label with the words: "Queen Mary's Slipper".

However, experts have dated the shoe to after Mary Queen of Scots was executed. The well-worn shoe was discovered in the former home of Margaret Fay Shaw who, with her husband John Lorne Campbell, gathered one of the largest archives of Gaelic culture.

Magda Sagarzazu, the trust's manager on Canna, made the find. Funding from the McCorquodale Charitable Trust helped cover the cost of conserving it.

The slipper was made from satin, silk, leather and metal and has been dated to between the 1640s and 1660s. Queen Mary was executed in 1587 at the age of 44.