There’s a BBC TV travel presenter called Monty Halls who said this in an episode of his Monty’s Great Escape:

“Three reasons to visit Scotland: Edinburgh, Stirling Castle and The Applecross Inn.”

Never heard of the Applecross Inn? Neither had we until I was started researching dining locations for my husband’s birthday, which fell into our travel schedule somewhere on Scotland’s rugged west coast.

Strangely enough, it turns out there’s a swag of top notch restaurants up here (including Scotland’s best restaurant, Three Chimneys, on Skye). But only the Applecross Inn required a hair-raising journey along Scotland’s most notorious stretch of road.

There was no room at the Inn, even though I tried to book 6 weeks in advance. After several days of email tic-tac, the establishment’s proprietor could clearly see I wasn’t giving up without a fight. So she offered us ‘John’s house’ as alternative accommodation. Okay, sure. But who was John? What was his house like? And where was John going to sleep while we were camped at his place?

We accepted in blind faith and sent the deposit on.