The bioactive alkaloid natural product perophoramidine and the related family of compounds known as the communesins have inspired the synthesis community for more than a decade. Many of the elegant approaches have required the synthesis of complex intermediates that have not always reacted in the expected manner. In this study we describe a series of cyclic ethercontaining precursors that were prepared during our synthetic studies towards these natural products. Attempts to open the cyclic ether ring and trap the resulting stabilised carbocation with a carbon nucleophile ultimately led to the preparation of a diallyl-substituted all carbon quaternary centre. Subsequent attempts to differentiate between the two allyl groups resulted in a relatively clean transformation to an unexpected compound. Extensive structural characterisation, including small molecule X-ray crystallography, showed that a dearomatisation reaction had occurred.