Balmoral bonnet

Developed from the earlier blue bonnet, dating to at least the 16th century, it takes the form of a knitted, soft wool cap with a flat crown.

Originally with a voluminous crown, today, the bonnet is smaller, made of finer cloth, and tends to be dark blue, black, or Lovat green.

[citation needed] As worn by Scottish Highland regiments, the blue bonnet (common civilian headwear) gradually developed into two military forms.

A mid-18th-century portrait of Lord George Murray shows a black cap essentially indistinguishable from a Balmoral, but sometimes described as a "blue bonnet".

Balmorals were described in 1842 as having become common civilian headwear "worn pretty generally by ploughmen, carters and boys of the humbler ranks".

A Balmoral bonnet made of black wool with a black grosgrain headband, Scottish crest badge cockade and ribbons and a red yarn toorie
Soldiers from a Highland regiment c. 1744 wearing Balmoral or blue bonnets (hard to distinguish by this period) and tartan belted plaids (great kilts).