When she was 12, she moved with her family to Stornoway, the Island's capital, where she attended the Nicolson Institute.
[4] She moved to Glasgow for secretarial studies at Stow College and worked for British Rail before marrying Bill MacAskill, a native of Lochinver, Sutherland, in 1964.
[1][2] It was not until the age of 38 that MacAskill first sang in public, at a fringe event at the 1979 National Mòd.
Musician and producer Noel Eadie heard her perform, which led to the first of her several albums.
[8] Her husband Bill MacAskill died, aged 81, on 31 October 2011, 7 months to the day after Ishbel.