[2] It was Aunt Fan who accompanied Elsie on early visits to museums and art galleries in London, inspiring a life-long interest in material culture and collecting.

[14] The outbreak of the Second World War, and resultant restrictions on movement along the west coast and islands of Scotland, meant that Grant was unable to collect during this period, while petrol shortages contributed to a general reduction in the numbers of visitors to the museum.

[15] In 1943 she purchased Pitmain Lodge, a large Georgian house, together with three acres of land near to the train station at Kingussie, about twelve miles east of Laggan, and on 1 June 1944 the Highland Folk Museum opened once again to the public.

"[17]The collections at Kingussie were developed "...to show different aspects of the material setting of life in the Highlands in byegone days"[18] and included vast arrays of objects: furniture, tools, farming implements, horse tackle, cooking and dining utensils and vessels, pottery, glass, musical instruments, sporting equipment, weapons, clothing and textiles, jewellery, books, photographs and archive papers with accounts of superstitions, stories and songs, and home-crafted items of every shape and description, including basketry, Barvas ware and treen.

[20] When Grant retired in 1954 ownership of the Highland Folk Museum and its collections was taken over by a Trust formed by the four ancient Scottish universities (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St.

[21] George 'Taffy' Davidson, senior fellow in arts and crafts at the University of Aberdeen, was appointed curator in 1956 and developed the collections in parallel with his own antiquarian interests, including folk music, taking in large numbers of gifts over the coming years.

In the early 1980s an eighty-acre site was acquired at Newtonmore – about three miles to the south of Kingussie – and work began to lay out four distinct areas: Aultlarie Croft – a 1930s working farm; Balameanach (Gaelic for 'Middle Village') – a developing community of relocated buildings; the Pinewoods – an area of forest with interlinking paths; and Baile Gean – the Highland Folk Museum's reconstruction of an early 1700s Highland township.

[26] Grant continued to publish late into life, and her home on Heriot Row in the New Town of Edinburgh was a popular meeting place for the capital's academics and young scholars.