
View across Loch Mealt to the peninsula carrying Dun Grianan.
View across Loch Mealt to the peninsula carrying Dun Grianan.
Looking into Dun Grianan from the entrance passage.
There is still some seriously fine walling in evidence at Dun Grianan.
This multi-image panorama shows Dun Grianan at its best.
Waves lapping against Dun Grianan on a windy day.
Double-skinned.... despite the fragmentary nature of the site it looks like a broch to me.
Mist down over the Trotternish Ridge... the exquisite siting of the broch is apparent even in this dodgy light.
The rucksack is not an original feature...
OK, not a great deal of this broch left. But it’s where you put it that counts...
Fabulously sited, looking across Loch Mealt to the north-east.
Visited: May 16, 2014
After reading what Carnmore has to say about Dun Grianan, I was in for a pleasant surprise: there was much more to see than I had imagined, with several courses of white stones forming an almost complete circle around this broch. Dun Grianan lies very close to a major tourist attraction on Skye, the Kilt Rock viewpoint beside Loch Mealt. In fact, Dun Grianin actually lies in the loch itself, on a tiny peninsula, just a one kilometre walk from the car-park (red line on map below).
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To reach the broch, head left from the Staffin Museum and continue to the croft gate (3rd on the left on the Ellishadder township road) from where you can walk down to Loch Mealt. Just follow the shore to your left and you will soon emerge at the broch.
It seems amazing that the small peninsula has survived for two millennia, as the south wall of Dun Grianan stands virtually on the water line. This is a site that has clearly been neglected, but which is easily accessible and stands in a splendid location. Yes, the broch has seen better days, but just to stand inside it generates a feeling beyond description.
The ‘badger’ gives a succinct appraisal of what still occupies this promontory within Loch Mealt.... yeah, not a lot aside from a low, double-skinned circular, drystone footprint. Not worth a visit then? Oh come on!
Visitors experiencing the deceptively – very deceptively – modest delights of Trotternish for the first time are recommended to stop and gawp at the fine spectacle of the nearby waterfall cascading down Kilt Rock.... there is a car park... and, well, it has to be done. However glance across the A855 and the sharp-eyed may make out Dun Grianan jutting out into Loch Mealt. Now I’m not that sharp-eyed, but I cheated and used my old OS map, parking beside the museum at the junction with the Ellishaddar road. An open gate, to the left a little further down said road, allowed easy downhill access to the loch’s shore, the broch clearly visible beyond. Trending right, accessing the promontory required stepping over a low fence or two, and negotiating a little marshy ground. But that was all. Simples. For Scotland, anyway.
As the ‘badger’ says, there’s no towering broch here. In fact it is only the trademark ‘double skin’ configuration which proves this is no mere animal pen... or even round house footprint. No, this is/was a broch alright. But, as I’ve found to be the norm upon this wondrous island, Skye duly intervenes to ensure a visit to Dun Grianan will not be forgotten in a hurry. Hell no! For starters the interior is a veritable mass of bluebells.... the exterior’s not bad, either, the placid surface of the loch engendering a mean ‘n’ moody vibe beneath an overcast sky. Beyond, the Trotternish Ridge is similarly ethereal, enveloped by the cloud mantle responsible for my venturing north this morning. In retrospect it was no bad thing. Trotternish is class.
As I sit and ponder ‘stuff’... tying to envisage what it must have been like to live within a ‘cooling tower’ beside this loch in times of lore (must’ve been a bugger with the midges, the awful little beasties strangely absent today)... I’m reminded of a quote by Mr Cope within his original great tome.. something like ‘the more I see, the less I need to see’. Yeah, you know I think I know what he meant? Beautiful site.
Visible from the road close to the car park for the Kilt Rock viewpoint the broch stands on a promontory at the north end of the loch. Now much reduced and largely converted into a sheep fank
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Location:
On the eastern edge of Loch Meall, near the Kilt Rock Waterfall.
Plenty of parking available in the viewing point car park.
After stopping off to see the waterfall, which turned out to be a non-event due to the lack of rain, I decided to have a look for the Broch instead. This proved to be much more fruitful.
The Broch can be easily seen from the main road as a grass covered, low rocky mound on a narrow promontory.