horizontal landscape photo of the inn pub and rocky beach at Applecross in the Scottish Highlands
The Applecross peninsula ( A' Chomraich in Gaelic ) is a peninsula in Wester Ross, Highland, on the west coast of Scotland. The name Applecross is at least 1300 years old and is not used locally to refer to the 19th century village with the pub and post office, lying on the small Applecross Bay, facing the Inner Sound, on the opposite side of which lies the Inner Hebridean island of Raasay. The small River Applecross flows into the bay at Applecross. Applecross is also the name of the local estate. This row of houses which is often referred to as Applecross, and is in fact marked as Applecross on some maps, is actually called Shore Street and is referred to locally just as The Street. The name Applecross applies to all the settlements around the peninsula, including Toscaig, Culduie, Camusterrach, Milltown, Sand, The Street, and many others. Extremely isolated, it was only accessible by boat until the early 20th century, and for many years after that the only road access was over one of Scotland's most notoriously treacherous roads, the Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle), which crosses the peninsula and reaches a maximum height of 2053 ft (626 m), below the 774 m high Sgurr Achaoracahin. The settlement is now connected via a winding coastal road which travels around the edge of the peninsula to Shieldaig and Torridon. The road skirts the shore of the Inner Sound and Loch Torridon. Applecross's name is an anglicisation of the Pictish name Aporcrosan, confluence of the [river] Crossan. Historically, the settlement is linked with St. Máelrubai (Old Irish form) or Maelrubha, who came to Britain in 671 from the major Irish monastery of Bangor, County Down. He founded Aporcrosan in 672 in what was then Pictish territory, and was the monastery's first abbot, dying on 21 April 722 in his eightieth year. The deaths of several of his successors as abbot are recorded in the Irish Annals into the early ninth century. The early monastery was located around the site of the late
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Photo credit: © Michael Sayles / Alamy / Afripics
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