Dun Chonnuill of the Garvellachs

There is not much left of The Great Castle of Dun Dunquhonle. It sat atop Dun Chonnuill, the smallest of the Garvelachs, and it's easy to see why this tiny island was chosen for a fort. Its cliffs rise 200 feet above the sea, and the few access points to the top were easily blocked by small defensive stone walls. 

Dun Chonnuill

The landing place is a natural galley slip in the rocky shoreline. From there a short hike around the head of an inlet leads to the base of a steep, and once heavily defended, path to the top.

Landing place seen from the sea

Landing place seen from above

The path zig-zags up the narrow grassy slope. There are five segments to it; the final one passing through a narrow defile to reach the summit. 

Zig-zag path to the summit

Atop the island you'll find a large grassy plateau, about four acres in size where, to quote John of Fordun writing in the fourteenth century, the "great castle of Dunquhonle" once lay. The only signs of this once great castle are several earthen mounds and low stone walls covered with green turf and nettles. 

Summit of Dun Chonnuill

This small piece of ground has seen a lot of history. A Lord of the Isles had been imprisoned here seven centuries ago, and thirteen-hundred years before that it had been the stomping-ground for the warriors of Fingalian legend, led by Conall Cearnach, cousin to Cuchulainn. It was Conall who avenged Cuchulainn’s death by killing ten and seven scores of hundreds of the men of Ireland. If my math is right, that's about 34,000 men.

Grass-grown foundation of a building

Dun Chonnuill is an amazing little island, one with more history per square foot than most others. And the view from this rock in the sea is expansive. To the south lie Scarba and the Slate Islands; to the southwest is Garbh Eileach, the largest of the Gravellachs; Mull spans the view to the north; Colonsay floats off to the west; and to the northeast the sea narrows in to the Firth of Lorne between Mull and the mainland. 

A tale of Dun Chonnuill, one that tells how the Macleans came to rule the isle of Mull, is recounted in Fitzroy Maclean’s West Highland Tales. Maclean describes how, in the fourteenth century, two Maclean brothers, Lachlan (the brains) and Hector (the brawn), abducted John MacDonald, the Lord of the Isles. They brought him to Dun Chonnuill to coerce him into making Lachlan the admiral of his forces. Another concession he was forced him to make was granting Mull, Scarba, the Cairnaburgs, and the Garvellachs to the Macleans. They released him only after he swore to all this while seated on the Black Stone of Iona, a vow that could not be broken.

See this CANMORE page for more on the once Great Castle of Dun Chonnuill.

Dun Chonnuill seen from Garbh Eileach

Garbh Eileach seen from Dun Chonnuill

Garbh Eileach of the Isles of the Sea

During my cruise last month on Elizabeth G we visited the three main Garvellach Isles: Eileach a' Naoimh, Dun Chonnuill, and Garbh Eileach. It was only my second time to set foot on Garbh Eileach, the rough rocky island that gives the island group its name. From the landing jetty it is a short walk to Garbh Eileach House, the only habitable house on the island. No one was home, and it was locked up tight.

Garbh Eileach House

My first visit to Garbh Eileach was in 2002, when I chartered the catamaran Gemini for a day to take me to Dun Chonnuill and Garbh Eileach (see book 1, chapter 9). That trip was in late July, and the bracken was head-high, obscuring much of the ground. One thing I'd wanted to find on Garbh Eileach back then was an old cemetery called Cladh Dhubhan, but with all the thick vegetation I could not find it.

Cladh Dhubhan may have been the place of interment for some of the early ruling families of Dalriada. Around 660 AD, one of the kings was the son of Dunchad mac Duban (Duncan, son of Duban). So perhaps Cladh Dhubhan was named after the father of the king. Another possibility is that one of the Gaelic words for 'brave' is dhubhlan, so perhaps Cladh Dhubhan means burial ground of the brave. On my visit last May the bracken was only starting to sprout, and so it was easy to find the old burial ground; a rectangular enclosure behind the house.

Cladh Dhubhan

There is sparse information on Cladh Dhubhan. The most informative is this short mention in Patrick Gillies' Netherlorn, Argyllshire, and its Neighbourhood:

'On the island of Garbheileach there is a very old graveyard known as Claodh Dhubhan (the burying-place of Duban). More than one prince and certainly one king of Alban was called Dubh; and Dubhan seems to have been a common name; while in 927, Dubthach, son of Duban, fourteenth in descent from Conal Gulban the great-grand-father of Columba, became Superior or Co-arb in Iona.'

That is about all I can find on the mysterious burial ground of Dhubhan, although there is a CANMORE page on it, it is short and uninformative. Finding Cladh Dhubhan was one of many "I'll have to return to an island someday" promises I've made to myself over the years. It took 14 years to keep this particular promise, and it was good to return to this rarely visited Isle of the Sea.

Cladh Dhubhan

Gemini - 3

Another island journey I took on Gemini was to Dun Chonnuill and Garbh Eileach of the Garvellachs. Dun Chonnuill is a great lump of rock, and atop it once stood 'the great castle of Dunquhonle'. Garbh Eileach, the largest of the Garvellachs, is home to Cladh Dhubhan, a burial ground said to have used by the royal house of Dalriada. But the bracken was so thick that I could not find the burial ground. See book 1, chapter 9, for a description of the visit to Dun Connel and Garbh Eileach.

Dun Chonnuill

Gemini off the south end of Dun Chonnuill

Looking down to Garbh Eileach House

Garbh Eileach - a bracken jungle only passable by following deer trails

Ruined croft house - Garbh Eileach

Stone enclosure next to Garbh Eileach House

Garbh Eileach House - House sign above the front door

Close up of worn house sign

A' Chuli - Cuil-ri-Brennan - An Unwritten isle

This photo was taken from the north tip of Eileach a Naoimh of the Garvellach Isles. In the foreground, just beyond the three skerries, cloud shadow can be seen darkening the island of A' Chuli; also known as Cuil-ri-Brennan - St Brendan's retreat. Just beyond it rises the larger island of Garbh Eilean. 

Eileach a Naoimh, with its monastic ruins, sees lots of visitors. But few set foot on A' Chuli or Garbh Eilean. I described a visit to Garbh Eilean in Book 1, chapter 9, and although I have visited A' Chuli, I never wrote about it.

I wanted to go there because, in a book that I've forgotten the title of, I'd read there was once a chapel on the island, and that St Brendan used it for a retreat. And so I set foot on the island to see for myself if there were any ruins. It didn't take long to scour every inch of the small rocky islet, and no ruins were seen. That said, the thick grass, heather, and bracken hid much of the surface, so I could have missed something.