[2] For two years he travelled around the area, chiefly in Argyll, perhaps founding some of the many churches still dedicated to him, before settling at Aporcrosan (Applecross) in 673,[3] in Pictish territory in the west of Ross opposite the islands of Skye and Raasay.
Thence he set out on missionary journeys: westward to the islands Skye and Lewis, eastward to Forres and Keith, and northward to Loch Shin, Durness, and Farr.
Both Máel Ruba's voyage to 'Scotland' and his foundation of Applecross are recorded in contemporary Irish annals, implying that they were considered of great significance at the time.
His death occurred on 21 April, and the Catholic Church in Ireland has always kept his feast on this day; however, in Scotland (probably owing to the confusion with Saint Rufus) it has also been kept on 27 August.
Pilgrimages were traditionally followed by expressing gratitude for successful cures through donating bulls for slaughter, roasting, and consumption by the pilgrims during annual celebrations of his feast day, either on or near his former hermitage on Isle Maree.
In reference to these past festivals, the cliff on the loch shore facing the island is still called (Scottish Gaelic: Creag nan Tarbh, 'Cliff of the Bull').
These rituals have been thought by folklorists unfamiliar with Celtic Christianity to come from a debased memory of Máel Ruba, which had perhaps become mixed with an ancient pre-Christian cult of the 'God Mourie'.