Blue bonnet

The blue bonnet was a type of soft woollen hat that for several hundred years was the customary working wear of Scottish labourers and farmers.

Although a particularly broad and flat form was associated with the Scottish Lowlands, where it was sometimes called the scone cap,[1] the bonnet was also worn in parts of Northern England and became widely adopted in the Highlands.

[5] Dyed with blue or grey vegetable dyes, they became popular with the peasantry and by the end of the 16th century—as noted by Fynes Moryson—the bonnet had been adopted nearly universally by men throughout the Lowlands, although it did not become widely worn in the Highlands until the following century.

[10] The blue bonnet remained everyday wear for Lowland farmers until the end of the 18th century, but its use was gradually discontinued under the influence of fashion and increasingly industrialised clothing manufacture.

[2] Reflecting the Victorian fascination with (and militarisation of) Highland dress, the smaller Kilmarnock or Balmoral bonnet, further elaborated with ribbons, a diced border, and a toorie, was incorporated into British military uniform during the 19th century.

Walter Scott gave a slightly differing definition of the term, stating that it signified "a petty proprietor", or member of the low-ranking gentry, who adopted "the dress, along with the habits, of a yeoman".

The Craigy Bield , by David Allan. Two Lowland shepherds of the 18th century, wearing variations on the blue bonnet.
A blue bonnet, worn in a romanticised Victorian-era depiction, by McIan, of a MacAulay clansman
A print of the 1650s, satirising Covenanter manipulation of the young Charles II , shows 'Jockie', a stereotypical Presbyterian Lowland Scot, wearing a broad blue bonnet.
The blue bonnet as a sign of Jacobite allegiance, here worn by Lord George Murray (though in black, and not really distinguishable from the later Balmoral bonnet ).
The flowers of Succisa pratensis , locally called the "blue bonnet" in Scotland.