Morag MacLeod was born in Scalpay, Harris and educated at the primary school there before going to Inverness, where she attended the Inverness Royal Academy. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh and after a spell of uncertificated teaching, she began as a texts transcriber at the School of Scottish Studies in 1962 before going to Jordanhill College of Education in 1963 to train as a teacher. She returned to the School of Scottish Studies as music transcriber in 1964 and remained there for the best part of the next 37 years, apart from a year’s teaching in Jordanhill and a 3-year secondment to the Van Leer Project – a community development project – with which she worked in her native Harris. Latterly she was a Senior Lecturer at the School of Scottish Studies, where she specialised in Gaelic Song.