TIFF files on Hard drives

I have a large amount of TIFF files on my Mac hard drive obviously taking up a lot of room,

Q.   Can I transfer these to an external hard drive or does Light Room CC need these files to work with?

Q.   Would I have to export them from LRCC to the external drive so they can be found if LRCC does need them?

I appreciate I have copies in collections of most of the images that LR uses work with but I don't want to move these off the hard disc until I am certain it won't effect LRCC capabilities.

Somebody please help! Thank you.