The Best Outdoor Shoes To Buy Now, According To The Crown

If you spent this weekend slip-sliding around your local park in totally inappropriate shoes then you have something in common with a most unlikely character: Margaret Thatcher. Or, at least, The Crown’s version of the Iron Lady.

If you’ve already watched episode two, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. If not, go back, watch it lest we spoil a rather toe-curling moment, then rejoin us. In a nutshell, Thatcher visits the royal family at Balmoral, but, being the city girl she is, doesn’t think to pack a sensible pair of hiking shoes. Instead, and much to the bemusement of the tweed-clad and flap cap-wearing royals, she totters around in an increasingly mud-caked pair of pumps and eventually has to borrow some boots from the Queen. Quite the faux-pas, but one that you have probably found yourself making since all our socialising has headed outdoors.

With wet weather over the weekend, I saw numerous people delicately picking their way through mulchy leaves and across muddy pathways, their shoes a mixture of white-soled trainers (eeek!), boots (somewhat better) and Crocs (at least you can wipe them clean). One man was even wearing flip-flops, a most unusual decision past August, but there you go.

Proper walking boots might seem extreme if you’re strolling around the park instead of scaling a mountain, but there is a happy medium between them and flip-flops. A pair of lace-up boots, preferably some with a chunky platform sole that will bear the brunt of the puddle muck quite nicely so that you can simply wipe them clean when you retreat back indoors. Princess Diana wears a pair; ditto Prince Phillip (minus the platform sole).

Grenson’s Nanette is credited with making the ‘hiking boot’ a thing a few seasons ago, and its latest iteration has the heavy-duty platform you’re looking for. Penelope Chilvers’s Geographer boot also has a raised sole, but is made from suede so make sure you spray it liberally with a water-repellent solution (try Liquiproof’s Premium Protector) before heading for the hills. Eytys’s lace-up boots also have the requisite chunk, while Zara’s have a toothy track sole that will mean you don’t have to grab onto tree branches/strangers (a real no-no right now) to get you safely from A to B.

All you need to work on now is your silk scarf (tied around the chin, naturally) and a battered old Barbour.