Quote Originally Posted by Warhoover View Post
I don't have a red hackle for it yet. But, when I get one, will I need to make another hole to get the pin through the hackle loop to secure it. Since the pin and lugs will be inside the glen?
I have an old Highland Fusiliers Tam-o-shanter (I think that's what it is, but can't remember. has a whilte plume), and I'll be darned if I know how the hackle is fastened. It's behind the tartan backer, but not through the bonnet itself, and I'm not about to take it apart to find out.

I think, if you're putting it on a glengarry, you'll fasten the red hackle behind the black cockade, but not through the hat. And the lugs will go through the hat and cockade.

In the old regiments, each one had its own style of headwear, even the khaki tams (one of which I wear daily in the fall and winter), so if you want yours to look authentic, you'll have to chech the exact regiment.

Your are correct that the Black Watch wore nothing but the red hackle on their tams, but who knows with the new amalgamation! Maybe they all wear that new lion rampant thing on everything. I suspect they are working out small ways to remain distictive in their batallions so as to preserve some pride and history.

One final note: I often wear an old WW II Scottish Reserve Regiment cap badge--it's simply a thistle--on a glengarry, and I have used straight pins through the cockade to fasten it rather than punch holes in the glen. It sticks out just a little, but you can bend the lugs a bit to minimize that.