Applecross, from lunch at the inn to the quieter shore

Sunlit white cottages at Applecross with dark clouds gathering over the hills beyond.

I’m usually in Applecross with guests at lunchtime, and after all the concentration it takes to get over the Bealach na Bà, it’s rather nice to sit by the water and look across to Raasay and Skye. Most visitors call this little row of buildings Applecross, but locally it’s The Street. You can see in the photograph how tightly it’s hemmed in between the sea and the hill. There’s scarcely anywhere for it to expand, which I think is why it looks much as it did when I first came here more than twenty years ago.

You notice that lack of space on a busy summer day, when the car park fills up and there’s scarcely anywhere else to leave the car. There’s a public toilet by the car park and a card-only, community-run fuel station at the foot of the Bealach. If you’re driving an electric car, plan your charge before you set off over the hill, because there’s no public EV charger in Applecross. If you’re coming for lunch in season, I’d book ahead at the Applecross Inn or the Walled Garden. The inn is small enough that turning up hungry and hoping for a table can be an optimistic business, although on a fine day you can get something from the inn’s takeaway and eat by the water.

For a quieter meal, I’d head to the Walled Garden, which we’ve written about in the Food and Drink section of our Discover page. If you’ve got a few minutes after lunch, carry on south to Camusterrach, where the road comes close to the shore beside a little inlet and you can look out towards the islands with rather fewer people around you. There’s a campsite just outside the village or you can rent a cottage for a few days, but there’s very little choice in the immediate area if you’re after a room for one night.

I stayed at the inn in 2010 and again in 2026, and in those sixteen years I don’t think the rooms or facilities had changed much at all. I’d describe them as functional rather than luxurious. On the rare occasions I’m there for supper, though, I’m glad to have the time to sit by the water after the traffic has thinned and watch the sun go down over the islands, wherever I’m spending the night.

If you want to learn more about The Street and the wider peninsula, take one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.