Ardross (Scottish Gaelic: Àird Rois, high-point of [Easter] Ross)[1] is a rural area in the Highland region of Scotland, 30 miles (48 km) north of the nearest city, Inverness.

The area is populated by a small rural community mainly confined to the more fertile lower slopes to the east and the glacial glens of Strathrusdale and Strathy (Ardross).

The total area comprises about 30 square miles (78 km2), most of which is lower slope farming, commercial pine forest on foothills and open mountain to the north and west.

The largest concentration of dwellings are in the village of Dublin comprising about 30 houses and a church, so named as it was founded by Irish immigrant workers who built Ardross Castle.

Many years later McKenzie related how, when once walking home with his father, he came upon a number of dispossessed tenant farmers who had been forced to camp in the local cemetery at Ardross Church as there was nowhere else to go.

Many years earlier, in 1792, tenants at Strathrusdale, which forms the western area of Ardross, had led a famous revolt against landowners such as the Duke of Sutherland who were carrying out the Highland Clearances.

According to Aidan Hart, a British liturgical artist, the frescoes create an effect he described as evoking the “Narnia cupboard in your soul.”[8] In 2022, Loukas Tsarmaklis, the estate manager, discovered dry rot in one of the guest bathrooms, which required partial dismantling of the walls adjacent to the chapel.

The McTaggart family, owners of the Ardross estate, have generously gifted land to the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain for this purpose, reflecting their longstanding wish to see an Orthodox monastery in the region.