She worked in various Scottish stage companies, including Perth Rep, the Edinburgh Gateway and the Glasgow Citizens, before moving to London in 1960.

[4][5][6] MacArthur was frequently seen on television,[7] with a long list of credits including Z-Cars, The Borderers, The Troubleshooters, Sutherland's Law, The Standard, The Omega Factor, The Sandbaggers, Doctor Finlay, Hamish Macbeth, Casualty and Sea of Souls.

In 1972, she played the tragic Scottish mother Jean Guthrie in Sunset Song, the television adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel.

[5][8] Her best-known role was the Lady Laird Elizabeth Cunningham in Take the High Road,[5] which she portrayed from the first episode in 1980, until December 1986 when the character was killed off in a car crash.

[14][1] In her obituary in The Scotsman, she was described as "an actress whose breathtaking elegance and beauty – and uncompromising dedication to the craft she loved – was matched by a brilliant intelligence, and wicked, earthy sense of humour.