Mutch – Highland Folk Museum

3D Model

This traditional Scottish bonnet is known as a mutch. Commonly worn by married and older women, they were still being worn into the early 1900s in some areas. This cotton mutch is from the Highland Folk Museum collection and dates from the 19th century.

Mutches varied from very fine ones with insets of lace to simple ones for everyday use or nightcaps. The bonnet would have kept a woman’s hair clean and tidy as she went about her jobs on the croft. Goffering irons were used to press the immaculate frills, and special boxes were used to carry a freshly laundered mutch to church.

Interested in trying on this bonnet?! This mutch, and a woollen tam o’shanter from the Museum’s collection, have been transformed into virtual dress-up filters, accessed through the Instagram and Facebook apps on a smartphone or tablet.

Click the links above to try it yourself!