Early 20th Century Rock climbing in Ireland

 The first recorded climbs in Ireland were done in 1925 at the Scalp by Harold Johnson,

The Scalp (Joe King -  CC ).

 but climbing as a recognised activity did not really get underway until the group known as the "Old IMC” began climbing in 1942. ( Calvin Torrans).  However, despite not being a recognised or organised activity there certainly was some climbing undertaken in the early years of the century.

As mentioned earlier some members of the Dublin Arts Club regulary travelled to North Wales.  It is very likely that they undertook some climbs around Dublin on sea cliffs or in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains.  One of these, Page L. Dickinson, went as far as to write a piece for the Climbers Club Jounal entitled:      A Rock Climb in County Wicklow. (Vol XI. Sep 1908. No 41)  In this he says "During the last three or four summers, (i.e as early as 1904) a small group of us living in Dublin have, inspired by Easter and 'Xmas spent in Wales and Cumberland, been exploring the Wicklow mountains, with a view to ascertaining what we could find in the way of rock climbing.'  He mentions crags at Lough Bray, Glendalough, the Scalp, Rocky Valley and Lough Dan but only to say that they didn't provide many possibilities - even though some of these became, later in the century, much used by climbers.

He goes on to describe how '...one day last summer, after having spent a weekend at Lough Dan, and working out some little problems...' they discovered '..a remarkably fine looking crag..' at Lough Tay.  This was the crag at Luggala and he tells how he and three friends (Sparrow, Evans and Earp) spent  six hours on the rope in the first asccent of what he named the 'Black Route'.  It has been impossible to locate this climb for certain, but the most likely location is Intermediate Gully, with one of the several routes above Pine Tree Terrace as the finish. (see IMEHS Journal Vol 2 pp 43).

Luggala (Wikipedia)

A few years later Dickenson, along with a friend (Conor O' Brien) wrote another article for the Climber's Club Journal entitled Mountaineering in Ireland, in which they describe the Rock Climbing possibilities in the various mountain ranges around the country but in their opinion '..rock suitable for serious climbing is almost entirely lacking...nothing to repay a definite climbing visit...'.  This may have done a dis-service to the development of the sport since, in later years, many of the places mentioned became serious rock climbing venues - the Mournes, Comeraghs, Fair Head, the Burren.

This group of friends, members of the newly formed Dublin Arts Club, made regular visits to North Wales.  Geoffrey Winthrop Young had begun, in about 1907, to organise gatherings of climbers at Pen-Y-Pass in Snowdonia.  He was a cousin to Page Dickinson, who. along with some of his Irish climbing friends feature prominently in accounts of these gatherings that later included some of Britains outstanding climbers.  Another member of this group was E.L. Julian who features in accounts of the Pen-y-Pass gatherings.

Page Dickenson, Conor O'Brien, Frank Sparrow, Edward Evans, E.L. Julian were the main group members and their stories will be recounted in more detail in future posts.

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Early Rock Climbing in Ireland

 The earliest record of a technical rock climb seems to be that of John Tyndall in 1860 when he climbed Eagle Rock (probably the Eagle's Nest) near Killarney. The climb was carried out against the advice of his guides who claimed it 'was impossible'.  He claims that: '... these guides and boatmen are fine, hardy fellows, and of great endurance, but they appear averse to trying their strength under new conditions', so these Kerrymen were unwilling to try a bit of rock-climbing. 

Eagle Rock
Courtesy NLI

A few years later, in 1864, it was also Tyndall who made the first recorded ascent of the Slieve League sea cliffs in Donegal.  Tom Hirst, in his diary, records that '...‘John descended one of the steepest portions to the water’s edge, and then ascended again, at a still steeper place. The guide dared not follow him but had to make a detour whilst John emerged safely at the very highest point of the cliffs. His wondrous feats of climbing already forms the subject of talk in the whole neighbourhood.’  On that same trip they spent time '... clambering over the (Giant's) Causeway and wandering from headland to headland along the coast'.  There is no mention, however, of any climbing on Fair Head!

There is a somewhat earlier account in the Dublin University Magazine  (1853) of what has been recounted as a climbing event.  On examination it appears that the event was where a man was lowered by rope down a cliff or rock-face on Sliabh Snaght, in Donegal,  to get access to an eagle's nest.  No actual climbing was involved - he was hauled back up the face with the  eagle chicks in his pockets - even though it was claimed that the same man had ascended Pieter Botte mountain in Mauritius, alone and with the aid of a rope.

In 1895 the Irish Times reported that '

Powerscourt

a member of the Alpine Club and two experienced mountaineers'  using ice-axes and other mountaineering equipment  climbed up the steep side of frozen  Powerscourt Waterfall in Wicklow in February of that year.  It is not recorded who were the climbers. Paddy O'Leary with Frank Nugent maintain that one of them was Richard Barrington.

In the eary years of the 20th century a number of people indulged in the activity.  Many of these were members of the Dublin (United) Arts Club and their activities will be examined in future posts.

Calvin Torrans (IMEHS Journal Vol 2)has provided a detailed account of the history of Rock-climbing from the 1940s to 80s and this will be looked at in due course.

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Alpinists in Ireland

  The Irish Alpinists did not neglect their homeland hills, but they treated them principally as practice grounds for the Alps, and their attentions did not give rise to a vigorous school of local climbers as was the case in Great Britain...'  In comparison to their Alpine exploits it is also unlikely that their mountain travels in Ireland would have warrented publication.

Nevertheless, some of the very highly renowned Irish alpinists did record some of their mountain journeys in Ireland.

John Ball had been climbing in the Alps from as early as 1840, well before the establishment of the Alpine Club.  He was appointed in 1846 as Assistant Poor Law Commissioner in Ireland and as second Poor Law Commissioner in 1849, which appointments gave him the opportunity of visiting remote parts of the country.  It was during these years that he recounts  a number of visits to various mountain regions of Cork and Kerry.  These were not so much mountaineering trips as geological trips to locate and examine  evidence of the passage of glaciers, similar to what he had done in the Alps. Notice of the former existance of small glaciers in the County of Kerry was the title of the article he subsequently wrote for the Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin (1848-50).  He reports on the signs of glaciation around Lough Doon, near Connor Pass, and he walked along the moraine that extends down to the lower Lough Beirne.  Similar features occurred around Lough Cruite,

Near Lough Cruite

near Mt Brandon, and on the NE side of Purple Mountain, where its moraine '..offers to the pedestrian the only path where his foot does not sink in the spongy masses of sphagnum..'   Local men may have accompanied him as guides but this is not recorded.

All this was taking place at least ten years before the formation of the Alpine Club, of which he was appointed as President, in 1857.

Eagle Rock
(Courtesy NLI)

John Tyndall's Hours of exercise in the Alps has a chapter on Killarney where he recounts his climb of 'Carrantual', Mangerton ('Mangerton is a stupid mountain') and Purple Mountain.  As in the Alps he used a local man as guide on such climbs and recorded that he paid 'the moderate sum of three and sixpence...' for the service.  This was in 1860 and when Con Moriarty, about forty years later, offered the same service he was being paid five shillings.  By the 1930s local guides were being paid about ten shillings. (see IMEHS Journal Vol 4).  In this chapter Tyndall gives, what appears to be, the earliest account of Rock Climbing in Ireland: 'Various bits of climbing were accomplished during my stay, and almost in every case in opposition to the guides.  The Eagle Rock for example, a truly nobel mass, and others, were climbed, amid emphatic enunciations of "impossible".  (This may in fact be Eagle's Nest)

This was not Tyndall's only sojourn in Ireland's hills.  Some four years later, (Easter 1865) he undertook a 'walking holiday' in northern Ireland with his friend Tom Hirst.  They walked from Larne to Glenarm along the coast and over the moors to Cushendall.  They used a local knowledgeable man as guide, a Mr Dixon, and went clambering over the causeway and wandering from headland to headland along the coast but no mention is made of Fair Head! Continuing to Donegal they climbed Muckish and Errigal with a local lad ' to carry our coats'.  At Slieve League ' ..John  descended one of the steepest portions to the water's edge and then ascended again at a still steeper place.  The guide dared not follow him....John emerged safely at the very highest point of the cliffs.  His wonderous feats of climbing already forms the subject of talk in the whole neighbourhood'.  (From Hirst's diary).

Sliabh Liag

(full account in Irish Mountain Log Autumn 2022 No 143).

Tyndall's climbing in Kerry and Donegal are likely to be the earliest accounts of climbing in Ireland and his book, which went to many editions, is likely to have promoted the tourist attractions of the Kerry region.

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