Dunan Choinnich, which Canmore considers may well be the remains of a broch, must surely be one of the most difficult features of its kind to visit on the entire Isle of Skye.
From the road at Torabhaig Distillery in Teangue, the distance to Dunan Choinnich is exactly one kilometre. But the rugged coastline is not an option: there is no direct path. To reach the dun, start at the distillery where a rough farm track heads off to the right and circles around the Torabhaig buildings before crossing the Allt Ghleann Thorabhaig (a stream). Immedaitely ahead, the path is gated, and an arrow board points to the right where a walkers' path follows the stream to the coast. Ahead is a ruined building with a rusted-red roof; pass this and ascend the grassy slope below the ruins of Knock Castle where you should spot a trodden path heading left (east) to a fence.
Straddle this fence and pick up a good walkers' path that hugs the fenceline of the field to the left. This peters out after about 500 metres, at which point you must descend the shallow valley carrying the Allt Gairistin Neill burn and ascend the prominent 60 metre high hill opposite.
The slopes are bracken covered in summer but there are plentiful grassy tongues which ease the way. From the summit of the hill, you see Dunan Choinnich sitting at the neck of a rocky peninsula. Descent is through somewhat denser vegetation, but there are grassy tongues and sheep paths to ease you down. It took me a full hour to reach Dunan Choinnich from Knock Castle!
Good strong walking boots are an absolute necessity!
Dunan Choinnich is extremely ruinous, though its grassy central court is evident from afar, surrounded by a vegetated rampart to the east and the tumbled, featureless residue of a wall that originally marked its landward boundary. There are only the scantiest remnants of structural detail remaining of a construction that is most definitely a target only for the determined connaisseur!
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Posted by LesHamilton
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