She attended Edinburgh University where she gained an Honors degree in Chemistry prior to taking a position  in 1961  with ICI Fibres Division in Harrogate, Yorkshire.  It was there that she met  and later married Mike.  

 In 1976 she came to Shelby, NC  with her  two daughters , Julie & Susan when Mike was transferred to Fiber Industries which was owned half by ICI in England and half by American Celanese.

In 1984, Eilean  co-founded  the  Shelby  Scottish Country Dancers Group  and has taught and led the group for the past  twenty-eight years.

 Eilean received her Preliminary RSCDS Teaching certificate  in 1989  with the Northern Virginia  Branch. and two years later, she earned her full certificate at St. Andrews, Scotland.

She has since taught numerous workshops in New Orleans, Atlanta, Florida,  North Georgia and Columbus, Ohio.
For the last several years,  Eilean  has also been a regular teacher at the week long Thistle School at Banner Elk in the NC mountains. This last year, she additionally taught  the RSCDS Basic Skills Course to a group of  20 students.

  In 1994, Eilean was appointed  Director of Scottish Country Dancing for the Loch Norman Highland Games held each April near Charlotte, North Carolina.  This  is now one the popular dances in the South East.

 In 2006 she was elected Chairman of the new Carolinas RSCDS Branch  for a five year period establishing a mid sized membership group in a geographic area similar to the entire UK .

 In November 2010  she & Mike had a 3 day visit to the HQ AGM meeting enjoying both the meetings and the dances

 When she is not busy with Scottish Country Dancing, Eilean  is a keen quilter in her spare time.

Eilean  & Mike enjoy playing in ACBL Bridge competitions with sufficient success to have achieved Life  Master status.. They  also enjoy periodic " eclipse chaser". trips to some very exotic parts of the world including Kenya, Egypt,  Tahiti and both the North  (Russian Ice breaker) and South (2000 foot flyover) Poles.