By: Jeff Meade

A tale of two hats: the balmoral, left, and the glengarry at right.

A piper is never full dressed without a hat.

When the bands march up Wildwood’s Surf Avenue in the Cape May County AOH Irish Fall Festival parade on Sunday, you’re likely to see variations on two types of caps:

Wearing the glengarry, piper Pam Anderson of the Cameron Highlanders Pipe Band.

Glengarry. Wikipedia describes the glengarry as “a boat-shaped cap, without a peak, made of thick-milled woollen material with a toorie or bobble on top and ribbons hanging down behind, capable of being folded flat.” To me, it always feels like a slightly oversized business-type envelope, into which I slide my oversized head.

Some glengarrys have black, white or red checks running in a little band of fabric along the base of the cap. These caps are called “diced.” Other glengarries just have a plain black fabric strip along the base. Some bands wear diced; others don’t. Maybe the choice means something to the band (but probably not).

The cap is named after Colonel Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, a contemporary of the author Sir Walter Scott. Glengarry invented the headgear.

Pipe Major Joe Tobin of the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band, in a balmoral.

Balmoral. You might mistake this type of hat for a “tam o’ shanter” or beret. Honestly, there’s not a huge difference between a balmoral and those other types of caps. The balmoral is a kind of soft bonnet, shaped like a pancake, with a cute little fuzzy toorie (that sounds bad, doesn’t it?) in the middle, and a couple of decorative ribbons running down the back. The balmoral is typically worn at a rakish slant, rising to a peak on the left side (the piper’s left side). The Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band wears the balmoral.

The balmoral also may be plain or diced. Irish bands often seem to prefer the balmoral over the glengarry. I know more than one member of an Irish pipe band who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a glengarry. It’s regarded as too Scottish. (Or worse yet, too British.)

At least one local band wears a cap that looks like a balmoral … but it ain’t. Irish Thunder wears a beret, just like the kind you pick up at any Army-Navy store. No toorie, and no ribbons.

Cap badge

Both the glengarry and the balmoral have a decorative ribbon on the left side. This generally is where pipers will wear a small brooch called a cap badge. Typically, Irish pipe bands wear a harp or shamrock cap badge, or some variation on that theme. (But not always.)

Some bands also decorate their caps with a hackle, which is a feather plume of a particular color. In the U.K., the hackle color often (if not always)

Hackles

identifies the wearer as belonging to a particular regiment.

Here in the states, if a band chooses to wear the hackle, it often has no significance beyond the merely decorative.

Note: Some bands wear feather bonnets, like humongous Q-Tips. (The Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipe Band has worn them.) It's a classic look. I’ve seen at least one local band wearing pith helmets. Nice for tracking Bengal tigers, too.

Next: From the knees down.

• Part 1: The kilt
• Part 3: Below the kilt