Optically active (S)-(+)-coniine as an N-Boc protected form was concisely prepared starting from an amino acid, L-norvaline. The key step involved a ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM) of the dialkenyl compound 6 to give the corresponding cyclic olefin 8 in an essentially quantitative yield. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.