The historical Kadrina parish was located on the northwestern border of Virumaa. A narrow strip of the neighboring Haljala parish divided it into two parts. The larger southern part was formed by the Kadrina area and the smaller northern part by the Ilumäe area, or so-called Kadrina-Ilumäe.
The parish was bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Kuusalu parish in Harjumaa, and to the east by the Haljala parish. The southern part of the parish shared a border with the Kuusalu parish in Harjumaa, the Ambla parish in Järvamaa, and the Väike-Maarja, Rakvere, and Haljala parishes in Virumaa.
A large number of historical objects have been collected for museums from the Kadrina parish. In the early years of the ERM, several collectors of antiquities went on collecting expeditions. The objects collected by A. Pulsti and V. Peerna in the summer of 1914 are archived under the numbers ERM 15971-16342. In the same year, J. Kents, J. Viikmann and M. Einholm also collected antiquities in the Kadrina parish. The objects collected by them are archived under the numbers ERM 16343-16471 and ERM 19300-19306. Later, in 1920, J. Veelmann's collection took place in the Haljala and Kadrina parishes.
The folk costumes of the Kadrina parish belong to the North Estonian folk costume group.
