Historic Highland clansman's bonnet could be first of its kind
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COULD this curious looking head-gear be the world’s earliest surviving example of a Glengarry-style bonnet once worn by Highlander clansmen after the act of Proscription banned Highland dress?
That is the belief of relentless researcher Robert Harbord who is spurring-on staff at Inverness Museum to help solve the mystery.
Being Oxford-based and an avid Highland visitor, Mr Harbord is perplexed by the bonnet which nestles inconspicuously behind glass in a cabinet in the museum building.
And his task in hand is no mean feat: He wants to track down the individual who unearthed it more than 70 years ago – or at least speak to one of their surviving relatives.
Because he believes the bonnet is unique.
He said: “Despite their very best efforts, and their best record-keeping going back to 1885, Inverness Museum does not have any other information on this particular item other than it was found in a peat bog in Fort Augustus pre-1930s.
"Its origins are a complete mystery.
“My hope is that an article in the Courier might stimulate someone who does know more about its origins to come forward.”
Research shows bonnets in the lead up to the Battle of Culloden were knitted affairs, large, wide and flat.
Insight into the crucial role they once played has been handed down by many historical sources but none so colourfully than the 18thcentury government roads contractor Edmund Burt who was sent to Inverness from London in the 1730s.
Remarking upon the Highlander’s hardened stance to the wet weather in his letters to a friend, Burt, in his book Letters from the North of Scotland said their bonnets were “frequently taken off and wrung like a dish-clout, and then put back on again”.
Mr Harbord said his research suggests that following the Act of Proscription in 1747 banning Highland dress, clansmen pushed the sides of their bonnets upwards "and at a stroke created an entirely new shape of bonnet".
And he strongly suspects that the Glengarry-style bonnet in Inverness Museum could be the earliest surviving example.
He added: “While the word bonnet was not actually mentioned in the Act, it can well be imagined that a clansman from Glen Garry, travelling to the strategically sited Fort Augustus six miles away, might think that if he was spotted by an Army patrol wearing a Highlander’s traditional flat blue bonnet, he could very well be arrested, and jailed for six months, on the spot.”
Museum curator xxx apologies her name is in the caption of the pictures xxx said no information exists to argue otherwise.
She said: “We think that it came to us before 1932. There’s no record showing where this bonnet came from other than what is said on the label and all that says is it was found in a bog at Fort Augustus.
“Mr Harbord thinks it might be the earliest surviving example and that seems perfectly feasible. If it does turn out to be the oldest one then that would make it a very significant object. We would be delighted if that could be confirmed in some way.”
