When to wear the Balmoral

[OC Richard]

My question pertains to what and when is the proper occasion to wear a Balmoral Bonnet, is it now odd to wear it due to a possible loss in popularity?

It's a fashion thing, especially in the Pipe Band world. In the 1960s and 1970s nearly all Pipe Bands wore Balmorals. I have photos of Highland Games in the 1960s and there are no Glengarries and no Ghillie Brogues to be seen in them. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s fashion changed and Glengarries were nearly universally worn by Pipe Bands. Now Balmorals are starting to make a bit of a comeback.

In the non-piping Highland Dress world Balmorals have always been the most popular hat, I think I'm safe in saying.

The Balmoral is the surviving original Scots Bonnet, going back to our earliest images of Highland Dress.

About when to wear a Balmoral, as a purely practical matter, it's when the air is cold and there's no sun.

was it originally military or civilian?

Like nearly every aspect of Highland Dress, the Balmoral started out civilian and was later adopted by the Army. Almost everything in the dress of the Highland regiments can be shown to have civilian origins, despite the widespread myths about various things being "military".