Ardross Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Highland

Overlooking the valley of the River Alness in Easter Ross, about thirty minutes north of Inverness, Ardross Castle is a large Scottish Baronial mansion surrounded by terraces and gardens. It began as a simple shooting lodge built for the Dukes of Sutherland in the late 18th century, on an estate of moorland and forest. The merchant and MP Alexander Matheson bought the estate in the mid-1840s and had the house enlarged from 1846, while laying out roads, plantations and a vast park along the river. In 1880-1881 the Inverness architect Alexander Ross gave it its present appearance: some thirty new rooms, a five-storey entrance tower with corner turrets, crow-stepped gables and oriel windows. Charles William Dyson Perrins, heir to the Lea & Perrins sauce business, bought Ardross at the end of the 19th century and in 1909-1910 commissioned an Italian-style formal garden from Edward White. Listed Category A by Historic Environment Scotland together with its terraces and gate piers, the castle has belonged since 1983 to the McTaggart family, who restored the house and gardens. A private property not open to visitors, it hosts weddings and events and is the setting of The Traitors: the BBC's British version since 2022, Peacock's American version and both series of The Celebrity Traitors, the second of which aired on BBC One in October 2026.