The Elphinstone Institute is committed to promoting and celebrating culture and traditions in the North and North-East of Scotland through public and community engagement activities that take place throughout the year. These include community projects, festivals, residencies, exhibitions, workshops, public lectures, storytelling evenings, radio programmes, and ethnographic film screenings.

Ongoing Institute research is centred around the analysis of vernacular cultural practice in the North and North-East of Scotland, though it also reaches out to cognate cultures across Europe and North America. Using collaborative ethnography, and drawing on European and North American traditions of scholarship in Ethnology, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology, we aim to explore the meaning and function of narrative, custom and belief, vernacular performance traditions, music and song, and occupational lore in everyday life.