[4][2] She has studied place names in the Norse and Celtic 'border' in Northern Scotland, the cult of St Clement in England, Scotland and Scandinavia, and excavations and reconstructions on Papa Stour, working with Scottish, Polish and Scandinavian collaborators, as well as a wide range of mediaeval northern history.
[6] She completed her PhD at University of St Andrews in 1971 as a result of seven years of research work, with a thesis titled 'The Earls of Orkney-Caithness and their relations with Norway and Scotland:1158-1470'.
[10] She also carried out a study of many churches dedicated to St Clement in Scandinavia and Britain,[11] two of which (Clementhorpe and Pontefract Castle) feature in an essay published in 2008.
[13][6] She has produced informal commentary on the survival of mediaeval church architecture,[14] and about documents written in Scots from the period.
[12] In 2016 Crawford was a keynote speaker on 'Seals in Medieval Orkney, Communal and Personal Identity' at 'Visualising the North' 3rd International St Magnus Conference,[16] having analysed the symbolism and meanings in detail, as discussed in Grohse's book the following year.
[17] The trust runs a Centre for retired historians without links to the University to aid them in pursuing their own historical interests.