It was the site of a monastery founded by St. Crona, a cousin of the Royal Saint Columcille, founder of the monastic settlement at Iona, and was the centre of the parish of Templecrone.
He was the ninth son of John Ross (fifth son to a second wife, Elizabeth Fullarton), an excise officer in Port Glasgow of narrow means and a probable descendant (via the Rosses of Kirkland and Tartraven) from Ninian Ross, 3rd Lord Ross.
He also inherited Balnagown from David Ross of Balnagown in 1732, and thus became Chief of Clan Ross, though the Rosses of Halkhead were not descended from the ancient Earls of Ross.