Elizabeth Sutherland lives in Ross-shire. She had an Orcadian father and a mother from Fife, which she claims makes her a Pict. After training at Edinburgh University to be a social worker, she married an Episcopalian clergyman and lived in four Scottish parishes. On her late husband's retirement in 1982 she took over Groam House museum in Rosemarkie and was responsible for its becoming a Pictish Centre.