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| Early members - United Arts Club Courtesy United Arts Club Dickinson indicated Cartoon - B Elvery |
Some climbing had been carried out on an intermittant basis during the 19th Century by visiting Alpinists such as John Tyndall. It seems that no regular climbing had been undertaken until the early years of the 20th Century. The main practitioners were members of the Dublin (United) Arts Club of which, if they were not among the founders, were very early members. Page Dickinson, Conor O'Brien, Frank Sparrow, Edward Evans, E.L. Julian were the main group members. The inspiration for their undertaking such an unusual activity as rock climbing is not clear. However, Page Dickinson was a cousin of Geoffrey Winthrop Young and this may have a bearing on the matter. By the early years of the century Young was already making his name as an Alpinist and climber, visiting Skye, the Lake District, North Wales and the Alps. In 1903 the weather was too bad for his usual Alpine season, so he went instead to Ireland, visiting cousins and to go cycling, walking and climbing in Donegal. There is no evidence that Dickinson accompanied him.
When Young returned to England that year he went with a group of friends to Snowdonia, to Pen-y-Pass, did some climbing and partying at what was to become the first of a tradition of annual 'get togethers' of British climbers in North Wales 'that continued for some thirty years under Geoffrey's benign direction'' One of those who attended was Page Dickinson and it is very likely that it was he who encouraged other members of the Arts Club to take up the activity. As he said: 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.' [Climbers Club Journal - Vol XI. Sep 1908. No 41].
They discovered '..a remarkably fine looking crag..' at Lough Tay.
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| Lough Tay. Wikipedia |
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 ascent of what he named the 'Black Route'. Frank Sparrow, Edward Evans along with Conor O'Brien were also some of the people who attended the Pen-y-Pass 'parties' under the direction of Winthrop Young and their stories will be recounted in more detail in future posts. Earp was an English motor enthusiast and does not seem to have climbed again in Ireland.
Dickinson was an architect and is primarily remembered as an architectural historian and journalist
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| Cappoquin House |
but could also be counted as one of the earliest regular rock climbers in Ireland. He was also an artist and exhibited at the Water Colour Society in Dublin in 1906 and 1908, the Irish International Exhibition in Dublin in 1907, the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 1907 and 1913, and at the annual exhibitions of the Architectural Association of Ireland in 1908 and 1910. Having left Haileybury School (Hertfordshire) he spent 'a year or so abroad', was then apprenticed to the architect Richard Caulfield Orpen in 1900, whom he later joined in partnership and worked on projects in Spain and Italy and on many country houses in Ireland.
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| Dickenson's letter re renovation of Cappoquin House. Irish Aesthete |
In 1915 he enlisted as a member of Dublin University Officer Training Corps and became a captain in the Mechanical Transport division; early in his service he suffered shell shock. After the war, he found himself among 'those who…had to leave their native country owing to the acts of their fellow-countrymen'. Towards the end of his life he returned to Ireland to live and died in Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, Ireland on 1 October 1958.
See DIA for further biographical details.
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