Applecross is a place you have to work for. Until the early 19th century the peninsula could only be reached by boat, and for a century and a half after that the only road in was the Bealach na Bà, a drovers' pass that climbs from sea level to over 600 metres in a series of Alpine hairpins. A coast road round the north of the peninsula to Shieldaig and Torridon only arrived in 1975. That isolation is still the point of the place.
What most maps label "Applecross" is really Shore Street — locally just "The Street" — a single row of 19th-century houses along Applecross Bay, looking west across the Inner Sound to Raasay and Skye. The name belongs to the whole peninsula, with its scattered townships of Toscaig, Culduie, Camusterrach and Sand. In Gaelic it's A' Chomraich, "the sanctuary", after the monastery Saint Máel Ruba founded here in 672, and its boundaries were once marked by crosses.
The Applecross Inn on Shore Street is the social centre of the peninsula; in 2023 The Scotsman counted it among the six best Highland pubs, so expect company in summer. Up the glen, the heritage centre and the old parish church tell the story of the monastery and the people who came after. The hills and shore have red deer, otters, pine martens and eagles, and seals, porpoises and minke whales in the sound.
Since the North Coast 500 touring route was drawn across the pass, Applecross has become far busier than its single-track roads were built for. Drive the Bealach na Bà early in the day, use the passing places properly, and leave the caravan at the bottom — the road is not suitable for large vehicles or learners and is often impassable in winter. The peninsula even had to invent Britain's first unmanned petrol station, in 2010, to save drivers a 36-mile round trip to Lochcarron.