Effie was born in about 1836, the youngest child of Allan Bàn MacLeod and Rebecca MacLeod of Sheabie. In 1854 Effie's widowed mother was removed with the family to 2 Urgha. Effie became a weaver, the skills taught by her father who had learned them on the mainland

In 1867 she married Duncan MacAskill and they lived as cottars on his father's croft at 11/12 Ruisgarry (Quay), which is where their five children were born. They later moved to 7 Borve, which her husband obtained in 1900.