Barbara Crawford was born and brought up in Yorkshire. She read Modern and Medieval History at the University of St Andrews, gaining a PhD in 1971. Her teaching and research career has been continuously attached to St.Andrews, apart from a period studying archaeology at Newnham College, Cambridge and a short term lectureship at the university of Aberdeen. Her chosen research area has been the history and archaeology of the Vikings in the Northern Isles, focussing most particularly on the earldom of Orkney which resulted in the publication of books on ‘Scandinavian Scotland’ (1987) and “The Northern Earldoms’ (2013). Shetland provided an opportunity to pursue archaeological interests with her excavation of a Norse settlement on Papa Stour based on an inter-disciplinary research project (with Beverley Ballin Smith) and published in 1999 by The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. After retiring in 2002 She was made a Reader in the School of History and has also been given a visiting Professorship at the Centre for Nordic Studies in Orkney College (University of the Highlands and Islands)

Antiquarian interests have always been the basis of her cultural life in Scotland, as shown by her election as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1964, making her one of the longest elected members of the Fellowship. She served time as a Council member (1988 – 1991), Vice-President (1993 – 1996) and President of the Society (2008 – 2011) during which time she chaired the Treasure Trove Advisory Panel of Scotland. Wider antiquarian interests saw her election as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1973), Member of the Norwegian Academy (1997) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2001). In 2011 Barbara was awarded an OBE for services to History and Archaeology.