Aconcagua and Mervyn Ryan

Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas. It was climbed on the 5^th of February 1925 by a party that included Mervyn Frederick Ryan.

Aconcagua.  Wikipedia CC A. Backer.  

The surname Ryan is closely linked with Tipperary and is unlikely to be thought of as being associated with Alpine climbing achievements. However, Valentine Ryan was an outstanding Alpinist in the early years of the twentieth century, making numerous first ascents and is remembered by the 'Ryan-Lochmatter' route on the Aiguille du Plan. His brother, Lionel, had the first winter ascent of the Weisshorn.

Almost totally forgotten is their cousin, Mervyn, of the same family, the Ryans of Inch (near Thurles). Mervyn was born in Malta in December 1883. This came about because his parents, Thomasine (Shaw) and Major Charles Ryan, British Army, were traveling home - from a posting in India, or the Anglo/Egyptian War - when the pregnancy intervened. Some time was spent in India – his mother was the daughter of the CO of the Royal Irish Regiment there. He was educated, as was his father, at Stonyhurst College, the Jesuit school in

Lancashire, from 1898 to 1902, where he excelled academically, captained the college football eleven and was involved in cricket and athletics.

Stonyhurst football

After that he qualified as an engineer at University College Nottingham, gained experience with railways in the USA and had a varied career in railways and munitions until 1919 when he was elected as president of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers and was appointed as Chief Mechanical Engineer to the Central Argentine Railway.

 

It may have been this appointment, or possibly the accounts of his cousins' Alpine exploits, that brought the mountains to his attention, for their followed five consecutive seasons of climbing in the Andes. In 1922, after a solo climb of Cerre Penitentes (4,440m) in Argentina, he made his only visit to the Alps, went on the Gorner Glacier and climbed Monte Rosa, the Rothorn, Gabelhorn and Wellenkuppe with Pollinger as guide.

The Alpine experience may have fired his enthusiasm, for the following

Aconcagua Party

 few years saw him make unsuccessful and guideless attempts of Almacenes (4,926m), Tolosa (5,432m), and Aconcagua (6,961m). The experience gained was beneficial for in 1925, along with climbing partners, Clayton, Cochrane and Mc Donald, he reached the summits of all three, culminating on 5^th February with the ascent of Aconcagua. This is considered the fourth ascent of the mountain and the second 'completely British' ascent.

He joined the Alpine Club in 1926, proposed by Sidney Young, an English businessman in Argentina. As linguistic qualifications he listed Hindustani with Spanish and school French, an indication of time spent in India. There seems to have been no climbing afterwards but he went on in his career to survey railways in India and Thailand.

Puenta del Inca

The experience of climbing in the Andes was likely to have been significant, for at his own request, he was to be buried at Puenta del Inca, the starting point of his summit attempt on Aconcagua. For his retirement he had intended to settle down in Ireland, had bought an estate here, but his final illness prevented this and he died in Argentina in 1952.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Desmond Ryan of Edinburgh for use of the photographs; Institution of Mechanical Engineers for the portrait; Stonyhurst College; Emma Mc Donald of the Alpine Club, London, and its archive that is so easily accessible on its website (http://www.alpine-club.org.uk);

 

Early 20th Century

 A number of Irish people were very active in Alpine regions in the early years of the 20th Century.

Valentine Ryan and William Trench Kirkpatrick  were being recognised as leading figures among Alpinists of the era.  In Ireland members of the Dublin Arts Club such as Page Dickinson were exploring the Irish hills and mountains for their mountaineering possibilities. Such figures were the ones who were making notable achievements in the sport and remain the ones that are remembered. 

Did such an activity influence the 'ordinary man in the street' ?  Were others indulging in such a leisure-time pursuit, even if at a lower level?

Since the 1880s in a repurposed gate lodge on the Powerscourt estate the McGuirk family ran a tea-shop.  This was located in the heart of the Wicklow Hills, close to Lower Lough Bray but actually in Co Dublin.  A visitor's book was kept by the McGuirks which many of their guests signed and entered comments.  Michael Fewer has analysed this in Tales from a Wicklow Tea Room and provides evidence that the facility was being used by a great many cyclists and hikers from the end of the 19th Century, into the 20th Century up to about 1960.

Hill walkers were..frequent callers at McGuirk's.  Country walking then was a pastime mainly enjoyed by middle- and upper-class people, and ramblers' clubs such as the Sléibhteágaigh and the Brotherhood of the Lug were established in the early twentieth century. (Fewer).

The 'great and the Good' of the Arts and professional classes visited Mc Guirk's on their visits to the Wicklow Hills.  As time went on the addresses listed became more and more from working-class areaas of Dublin.  According to The Irish Times (Sep 1902), ascents of Mangerton and Carrauntoohill in Kerry were common and 'great mountain and open-air tramps were a feature of Dublin life' in the first decade of the century.

The following is a list of some of the people who visited or wrote in the guest book:

J.B Malone; Fr. Willie Doyle, SJ; J Swift Joly; Fr F.M Brown SJ; Standish O'Grady; Oliver Gogarty; J.M Synge; Hugh Lane; John Healy;  William P. Hackett, SJ; Ben Kiely; Samuel Beckett.

Early Alpinists (20th C) W.T. Kirkpatrick.

 Other than from his mountaineering writing we know very little about William Trench Kirkpatrick. (See Paddy O'Leary's William Trench Kirkpatrick in Vol IV of the IMEHS  journal).  Family lore holds that his paternal ancestor came from Scotland and was on the ship the broke the boom to relieve the Siege of Derry.  Other ancestors  may have been settled in Larne at this time and William's father was the seventeenth child of Alexander of Drumcondra and he married K(C)atherine Trench who owned Donacomper House in Celbridge, on 29 August 1854.

William, born on first of August 1857 at Monkstown in Dublin, was their second child and had six siblings.   Katherine kept a diary for most of her married life and this gives some insight into the activities of such a family over a period of years, although seldom throwing any light on William's mountaineering career.  In August 1861, when there were four children, endearingly called 'the chicks', they all 'went up Killiney Hill'; an early start to a mountaineering career. 

In September of '67 'my darling Willie went to school'.  He had just turned ten.  Although his father accompanied him to Temple Grove School on the outskirts of London it must have been a wrench for the young lad and when the father returned a week later he reported that Willie 'was very wretched.' 

Katherine, his mother, sometimes combined his collection from school into something of a holiday and in July 1870 this was spent in North Wales where they walked in Llanberris Pass, visited Swallow Falls and swam in Ogwen Lake.

JMW Turner.   Rigi

The 'Grand Tour' was likely to have been 'de rigueur' for such a family.  Katherine and the children undertook such a tour late in 1872 after Willie had returned to school and it lasted for almost two years.  Part of the reason for the tour was that Mary, Willie's older sister had musical talent and she was visiting Belgium and Switzerland for voice training.  The schoolboys joined them for the Christmas and Easter vacations that year and in May they moved from Brussels to Spa and then through Germany towards Lucerne, where Alexander and the boys joined them on the fifth of August.  Two days later the father and boys left at 5am by boat to cross the lake and then walked up and down Mount Rigi (1,798m) – Willie's first Alpine summit.

Rigi (Summit Post)

 A week later the boys 'went to Mt Pilatus to sleep there ... saw a lovely sunrise...had wretched beds and living'.  A few days later he went with father and sister Mary, to Hospenthal where they spent two days, crossed the Furka Pass (2,429m) and visited the Rhone Glacier.  After this they went on to Interlaken from where they did a short, steep, climb to view the Jungfrau, then went on to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald and visited another glacier.  So ended his first Alpine season for the sixteen year old William and  the tenth of September was the boys' last day before heading back to school with the father. 

 He matriculated for Trinity College, Cambridge in Michaelmas term of 1876.  After taking exams in late 1882 he was called to the Bar in 1883. His visits home continued at every opportunity; at Christmas, Easter and summertime when he continued to pursue his outdoor interests of hunting, shooting and fishing.  As well as his work in the legal profession he seems to have been interested in writing and acted as a special correspondent for The Times, for which he went on a tour through Ireland, visiting Belfast, the Giant's Causeway, some of the midland counties and Mitchelstown in Cork. This tour took place between visits to Norway (1885) and Australia (1889), that may have been undertaken for journalistic reasons.  In later years he contributed at least seven articles on his mountaineering exploits to the prestigious Alpine Journal that were compiled into one volume, published as 'Alpine Days and Nights', in 1932.

Details of his mountaineering career have been outlined elsewhere

 (Journal IMEHS Vol. 4, Paddy O'Leary) but only get occasional

 mention in this diary where it records that he went to London on

 July 9th of 1895 but his Alpine Club application records that this 

was his first Alpine season when he climbed six summits in the

 Ortler region. It was during this season that he met up with the Scot,

 Robert Phillip Hope, at Sulden, with whom, along with another

 friend (W. Barnard) they climbed the Ortler summits without the

 help of local guides. 

They didn't climb from centres and in 1902, with Hope,  -

 we slept at no fewer than thirty different places among the

 mountains...our high water mark by traversing the Maije ...

 the first English traverse ...without guides - done by a Scotchman

Pic de la Maije (Wikipedia)

 and an Irishman.

The practice of not using guides was somewhat frowned upon

 by the Alpine Club but this was the beginning of a long partnership

that  resulted in first ascents and new routes. They were together on

 the Isle of Skye the following year, climbing Sgurr nan Gillean,

 Sgurr Dearg and Inaccessible Pinnacle among others.

  In 1915, with members of the United Arts  Club,

 he climbed Barravore Crag in Wicklow.

Thenceforth we climbed together every year till the war, except

Alpine Club (AJ 53, 1941)

 in 1904 (when I was in South Africa), and visited pretty well

 every district in the Alps. We climbed most of the well-known

 mountains, traversing them in a large proportion of cases, and also

 did a good many out-of-the- way peaks that are seldom climbed by

 Englishmen, ...After the war we climbed again, but in 1922 we gave

 up mountaineering, but continued to visit the Alps, walking up hill,

 and doing glacier expeditions. Our last visit together was in 1929 .

..(Hope's obituary. AJ.42. 1930) which would have been when

 William was seventy two.  He died in 1941.

His being very much involved in local matters in Kildare resulted

 in his name appearing on more than six hundred occasions in

 the Kildare Observer, the local newspaper.  During these same years

 he was also performing substantial feats of mountaineering on a

 regular basis in the Alps without arousing any local awareness in

 Ireland, which may be indicative of the general lack of interest in the

 Ireland of the day in such activity.

Early Alpinists (20th C) - - Valentine Ryan -- The first 'Celtic Tiger' -- and Lionel, his brother.

Courtesy:
 Rosemary Ryan-Testa

 Among climbers a ‘tiger’ seems to denote a young, dynamic, driven character who seems to be able to climb anything he’s pointed towards, showing scant regard for tradition or the reputation of others.

Valentine John Eustace Ryan seems to have burst upon the British climbing scene in the first decade of the 20th Century in just such a fashion.  As Winthrop Young said of him ‘he climbed with an almost feverish energy and daring’.  This was in an era well past the ‘Golden Age of Mountaineering’ when no new big climbs were being done in the Alps.  Some exploration was being done on the Aiguilles and in the eastern Alps but the major figures of British climbing –Slingsby, Collie and Conway – were in the distant greater ranges.  Into this scenario : ‘a young climber suddenly ranging up and down the whole length of the Alps for several seasons each year, making only the most difficult ascents, many of them new… a standard of rock technique altogether unprecedented,’..

He was 15 years old when he made his first mountain ascents – Pizzo Lucendro and Pizzo Fibbio in the St Gothard area, probably while on holiday with his family in the summer of 1898.  Two years later he climbed Aiguille de la Za, Pic d’Artzinal, Ulrichhorn and almost summited on the Nadelhorn.  In 1901 he climbed the Dom.

In the winter of 1901/02 the family was on holiday in Switzerland, possibly for health reasons.  Val was on leave from the army.  The father, writing to his brother in County Tipperary from the Grand Hotel, Locarno, states:

‘Bob (family name for Lionel) after a few days here found the place too dull for him so he went off alone – he crossed the Simplon in deep snow on a sleigh which upset two or three times on the journey – he then did some wonderful mountain attempts in winter …he has become quite notorious for his daring feats of climbing…’

Weisshorn

The London Daily Mail reported the details: 

‘The honour of the first important Alpine ascent of 1902 has been gained by Mr Ryan, an Englishman. (sic.)  Accompanied by three guides, he left Zermatt on Friday and climbed to the summit of the Weisshorn, 14,805 ft., and returned safely today (12th).  This is the first time the Weisshorn has been ascended in winter.’

Val, also, seems to have wanted some of the action.  He and his mother went to Lausanne, where they were joined by Lionel.  The two boys (19 and 17 years old) then went to Chamonix and ‘enjoyed a week in the snow there but the bad weather drove them back to Lausanne to their mother who was waiting anxiously’.  The week in the snow (as in Val’s Alpine Club candidate’s form) involved climbing the Aig. De l’M and Petit Charmoz; Aig. du Moine, and attempts on the Charmoz and the Aig. du Plan, which was stopped high up by bad weather.  Lionel’s regiment went to India soon after that and he died there in April 1903.  This was surely a climbing career cut short.

In 1904 Val began really to get going and must have spent his whole leave in the Alps’. (Young)  The list of climbs, with Joseph and Franz Lochmatter, is impressive: (see IMEHS Journal Vol 3 for details): Rimpfischhorn; Charmoz traverse; Aig. Verte; Grèpon and Blaitière in one day; and others.   See Frank Nugent's In search of Peak, Passes and Glaciers for further details.

Geoffrey Winthrop Young, who was a contemporary, likened him in many ways to the renowned Edward Whymper.  He says, in 1949, that Whymper and Ryan  ‘… were both for a few years in youth fired into something like heroism, inspired to pursue adventurous and almost romantic achievement, by the fascination of Alpine heights and by the physical satisfaction of climbing....Because of those years of enthusiasm in his youth, because of his exceptional prowess, and of the independent courage with which he attacked new spheres of difficulty and danger, Ryan’s name lives on among the Alps… We at least can realize, … what a novel mountaineering movement was launched during those few seasons at the start of the century, and what a leading role he himself played in the launching’

Valentine Ryan left little account of his climbs. He was not much given to writing and seems to have found it tedious. Some notes he was preparing for publication were mislaid by the person to whom they were given and he never rewrote them.  Some fragments of a possible book of climbs are quoted by Young in the Climbers’ Club Journal.  What is known of Ryan’s character is gleaned from Young’s account of dealings with him and observations of him as a fellow climber.  

During the second war he was active in London as an Air Raid Warden ; and he was planning to revisit Ireland once again when he died in 1947.

 

Early rock climbers (20th C) - Conor O'Brien - a climbing sailor

 Conor O'Brien was the son of Edward O'Brien of Cahirmoyle, Co Limerick, and his second wife (Julia Mary Marshall, whose substantial wealth was based in Yorkshire and Lancashire).  Conor grew up in South Kensington, was educated in England (Winchester 1894 -99, Trinity College, Oxford 1899-1903),  frequently visited his relatives in Ireland as well as visiting the Swiss and Italian Alps. 

 After qualifying as an architect he worked for the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), designing creameries in the Limerick area and worked on the design of churches and private houses.

In 1907, the United Arts Club was established by luminaries including W.B. Yeats, George ‘AE’ Russell, and Augusta Gregory.  OBrien was among the founding members.  Another member was Page Dickenson, with whom he became a close friend.  Their friendship may have been based on their shared enthusiasm for mountain climbing, for in the years 1909, 10 and 11 weekends and holidays were spent climbing the mountains of Ireland with a group from the Arts Club. 

 Dickenson had been climbing at Pen-Y-Pass in Wales since the first of Winthrop Young's  climbing weekends there in 1903.  Frank Sparrow,  another Arts Club member, had been also climbing there since 1907.  Easter 1911 was OBrien's first Pen-y-Pass sojourn and afterwards, on occasion, he sailed to North Wales  to join the climbing group in his own yacht.  On these weekends he climbed with such notables as Geoffrey Winthrop Young and George Mallory (of Everest) and both were invited to sail with him to Ireland's south west coast to explore Mt Brandon in Kerry for its climbing possibilities, which they did but found that the Old Red Sanstone of the region was unimpressive for climbing.

Robert Graves (poet, novelist), who had also climbed in North Wales wrote of OBrien:  "..we did real precipice climbing and I had the luck to climb with George (Mallory)...Kitty O'Brien and Conor O'Brien, her brother...He would get very excited when any hitch occurred; ...Kitty used to chide him 'Ach Conor dear, have a bit of wit!'...he used to climb in bare feet."

(Kitty seems to be totally forgotten as an early woman climber)

As a sailer his great achievement was his round the world journey, to circumnavigate in a small personal craft, west to east, and soutth of the three great capes.  One of his objectives in this was to climb Aoraki (Mt Cook), which was not achieved, but he climbed South Africa's Table Mountain.

After two years he returned to Ireland, became a successful author, publishing numerous books and articles.  He died in 1952 and is buried at Loghill Church in Co Limerick.

Further details see:

In Search of Islands. A life of Conor O'Brien.  Judith Hill. Collins Press

Conor OBrien. Sailor Extraordinaire.  Vincent Murphy.  Flag Lane Publishers.

Early rock climbers (20th C) - Page L Dickinson

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. 

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

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. 

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.

Of Irish parentage

A notable number of climbers in the 20th Century had a parent or parents who were Irish.  It is not being claimed that this characterised them as Irish.  However, the influence of a parent may have been significant in their careers, climbing and otherwise.

Three such people whose contribution to mountaineering took place mainly in the 20th Century were:

Edward O Wheeler

Edward Oliver Wheeler: son of Arthur Oliver Wheeler  (born Kilkenny) and Clara Macoun, daughter of famous Canadian botanist John Macoun (born in Magheralin, Co Down).With his father climbed his first mountain at age twelve - named Mt Oliver - in Canadian Rockies. Surveyor on 1921 Everest Expedition.

 Young (Wikipedia)

 Geoffrey Winthrop Young: renowned British mountaineer was the son of Alice Eacy Kennedy, daughter a leading Dublin physician. A 'woman of splendid presence and forceful character', when she died in 1922 the Times obituary described her as one of the last grandes dames.  'The Irish connection was precious to Geoffrey. As a child he enjoyed long summer holidays at Belgard Castle, the Kennedy family home near Dublin...in the enlivening company of his Irish cousins', one of whom was Page Dickenson.

Mervyn Ryan

Mervyn Ryan: Born in Malta in 1883, son of Maj Charles Aloysius Ryan of Inch House, Thurles. Cousin to Valentine and Lionel Ryan of Thomastown, Birr, Co Offaly. Educated at Stonyhurst (1898-1902), became a railway engineer in Argentina where he had a number of mountaineering seasons in the Andes and climbed Aconcagua on 5th February 1925 (4th ascent of the mountain).

Their achievements will be examined in due course.

Another, who operated in the 19th Century was Amelia Edwards -  born on 7 June 1831 in Islington, London, to an Irish mother (of the Walpole family of Tipperary) and a father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker, Edwards was educated at home by her mother, (visited the Walpole family in Ireland often during her childhood) and showed early promise as a writer. 

At the time of Edwards's visit, the Dolomites were described as terra incognita and even educated persons had never heard of them. 

After her descent from the mountains, Edwards described civilized life as a "dead-level World of Commonplace". In the summer of 1873, dissatisfied by the end of their journey, Edwards and Renshawe took to a walking tour of France.[9] However, this was interrupted by torrential rains, a factor that influenced them in looking towards Egypt.[7]

Conor O'Brien was the son of Edward O'Brien of Cahirmoyle, Co Limerick, and his second wife (Julia Mary Marshall, whose substantial wealth was based in Yorkshire and Lancashire).  Conor grew up in South Kensington, was educated in England (Winchester 1894 -99, Trinity College, Oxford 1899-1903),  frequently visited his relatives in Ireland as well as visiting the Swiss and Italian Alps.  After qualifying as an architect he became a friend of Page Dickenson, joined the Dublin Arts Club and climbed in North Wales with Geoffrey Winthrop Young and others.  He is mainly remembered for his sailing exploits - a round the world voyage on his yacht 'Saoirse'.

See In Search of Islands, a life of Conor O'Brien by Judith Hill

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Dolomites - Amelia Edwards

 Another, who operated in the 19th Century was Amelia Edwards -

Wikipedia

born on 7 June 1831 in Islington, London, to an Irish mother (of the Walpole family of Tipperary) and a father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker, Edwards was educated at home by her mother, (often visited the Walpole family in Ireland during her childhood) and showed early promise as a writer. She published her first poem at the age of seven and her first story at the age of twelve. Thereafter came a variety of poetry, stories and articles in several periodicals, including Chambers's Journal, Household Words and All the Year Round. She also wrote for the Saturday Review and the Morning Post.

In addition, Edwards became an artist. She would illustrate some of her own writings and also paint scenes from other books she had read. She was talented enough at the age of 12 to catch the eye of George Cruikshank, who went so far as to offer to teach her, but this talent of hers was not supported by Edwards's parents, who saw art as a lesser profession and the artist's way of life as scandalous. Their negative decision haunted Edwards through her early life. She would wonder frequently whether art would not have been her true calling.

Thirdly, Edwards took up composing and performing music for some years. Other interests she pursued included pistol shooting, riding and mathematics. 

Monte Pelmo

At the time of Edwards's visit, the Dolomites were described as terra incognita and even educated persons had never heard of them. This journey was described in her book A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites (1873), later entitled Untrodden Peaks and Infrequent Valleys.

On 1 July 1872, after a three-day stay in Venice, Edwards and Renshaw left for the mountains, visiting Cortina d'Ampezzo,  Primiero,  Passo Fedaia, Sasso Bianco, and many other places, ending their journey in Bolzano.

Sasso di Ronch

After her descent from the mountains, Edwards described civilized life as a "dead-level World of Commonplace". In the summer of 1873, dissatisfied by the end of their journey, Edwards and Renshawe took to a walking tour of France. However, this was interrupted by torrential rains, a factor that influenced them in looking towards Egypt. Her travels in Egypt made her aware of increasing threats to ancient monuments from tourism and modern development. She set out to hinder these through public awareness and scientific endeavour, becoming an advocate for research and preservation of them. In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund .  Her dedication to this science earned her the nickname of "the Godmother of Egyptology". It is for this that she is remembered today and less so for her groundbreaking exploration of the Dolomites.

Primiero (Wikipedia)

Edwards also supported Somerville College Library, having left many books, papers and watercolours to Somerville College, Oxford,

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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 regularly 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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Clubs and Organisations

 The Alpine Club, the world's first mountaineering club was founded in London in 1857.

Its first President was Irishman, John Ball and James Bryce, another Irishman,  was President from 1899 to 1901, before being appointed Ambassador to the USA.

As we have seen, many of the pioneering Irish alpinists of the 19th C had been members of the AC.        It seems that from among those living in Ireland that the first organised 'mountaineering' event was

University Club

 held. James Bryce, as Under Secretary of State for Ireland, had led 'his panting subordinates up the steep side of Croagh Patrick'.  If this event is discounted it was the dinner held by the Irish AC members in the University Club on St Stephen's Green, Dublin, that might qualify.  Bryce had been the President of the Alpine Club, was an important figure in Ireland's administrative establishment and was soon to be appointed as British Ambassador to the USA and the event may have been organised by his AC colleagues to celebrate this.  However, there was no Irish club or organisation involved.

ALPINE CLUB DINNER IN DUBLIN.-The first dinner of members of the Alpine Club resident in Ireland was held at the University Club, Dublin, on January 26, 1906. The members of the latter Club having invited their fellow Alpinists' to meet the Right Hon. James Bryce, ex-President of the A. C., the following party assembled to welcome him to Ireland: H. de Fellenberg Montgomery (senior member), in the chair; Sir F. J. Cullinan, C.B.; Hon. G. Fitzgerald, Rev. W. S. Green, H. Warren, G. Scriven, R. M. Barrington, Rev. P. S. Whelan, H. Synnett, W. J. Kirkpatrick, G. B. Tunstall Moore.  (Courtesy: Alpine Club).

More about these to follow.

Early Brotherhood
 members

Brotherhood of the Lug                                                                                                                Somewhat earlier another event took place that could be regarded as the inaugeration of the first 'mountain' club.  This was the foundation of the 'Brotherhood of the Lug' that took place on the summit of Lugnaquilla (The Lug), the highest mountain in Wicklow and Leinster, on March 8th 1903.  Although not claiming to be 'mountaineers', they were prodigious walkers regularly walking distances of 35 km in the Wicklow hills.  The 'cradle' of the Lug, as they called it, was the Vale View Hotel in Avoca, where they stayed overnight before their annual ascent of Lugnaquilla.  The club continues to the present time and its hiking, trekking and climbing is no longer limited to Wicklow, as it was initially, but ventures much further afield.

See IMEHS Journal Vol 4:  Peter Quinn, Ireland's Oldest Walking Club for more detail.

United Arts Club, Dublin.  It came into existence in 1907 as 'a high spirited, non sectarian, non-political social club'; W. B. Yeats, George “AE” Russell, Lady Augusta Gregory -  these writers, along with Ellie Duncan, Count Casimir and Countess Constance Markievicz, founded the United Arts Club.  Despite having no obvious connection with mountaineering a number of its members were enthusiastic Rock Climbers and visited North Wales to climb with the leading British alpinists of the day.  These were such people as Conor O'Brien and Page Dickenson and others.

More about these to follow.

CHA - founded in Britain in 1891 ( by Rev. T.A. Leonard) as the Co-Operative Holiday Association.
This organisation arranged 'good value' walking holidays and established hostels in England, Scotland and Wales. with the aim of encouraging people to visit and enjoy the countryside.  In 1922, James Doyle, who had holidayed with the organisation, wanted to set up a similar association in Dublin.  On writing to the HQ in England, he was given a list of 42 names from Ireland of people who had holidayed with the group, 27 of which were in Dublin.  Following an 'ad' in the Evening Mail and after writing to some, the first meeting was held on 13 Sep 1922.  About 20 attended and the first 'Ramble' was on the 21 October 1922 when they met in Rathfarnham 'a village nestling at the foot of the Dublin Mountains'.  They continued with a programme of rambles and social events, opening a hostel in Bray that had to close in the 70s.  The 2nd WW and the lack of transport affected activities and membership but the club continues today as the Countrywide Hillwalkers Association.  See here for more details.

HF stands for Holiday Fellowship and has its origins in  Lancashire when, in 1891, the Rev T.A.
Leonard starting taking young people walking on the hills. He first formed Co-operative Holidays Association (CHA) and then in 1913 he formed the Holiday Fellowship.

Early HF hikers.

 The emphasis of the organization was on healthy outdoor exercise and temperance (long since abandoned!).   The Dublin branch of Holiday Fellowship was founded in March 1930 by a small group on the south side of Dublin, The Club grew rapidly in members, including Guinness employees and every year they went to an HF center to holiday. There were many notables in the club, like Wilfred Brambell and Dr. Sheehy Skeffington. From the early days there was a programme of rambles and hikes in the mountains of Wicklow and surroundings.                                                                                                                      The club now has  no formal link with the UK company HF Holidays,  though it occasionally holidays in one of its houses.    See here for more information.

Hostel Association:  We are An Óige, the Irish Youth Hostel Association. We were founded in 1931 and ever since it has been our mission to provide safe, affordable, comfortable accommodation and experiences to the young and young at heart. Our aim is to foster an appreciation of nature and the world around us to all, be it backpackers, school groups or families. Many of the hoistels are located in remote areas and give easy access to Ireland mountain regions.

Scouting Ireland:  Scouting Ireland has its history in two legacy Scouting organisations — the Scout Association of Ireland (SAI), formerly known as the Boy Scouts of Ireland, and the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI). The former traces its roots to 1908, and the latter was founded in 1927 – both trace their legacy to Lord Baden-Powell's Scout Movement.                                                                         By 1908, the influence of Baden-Powell's Scout Movement had spread from Great Britain to Ireland. The first recorded meeting of Scouts in Ireland took place at the home of Richard P. Fortune, a Royal Naval Volunteer Reservist, at 3 Dame Street, Dublin on 15 February 1908 where four boys were enrolled in the Wolf Patrol of the 1st Dublin Troop. The earliest known Scouting event in Ireland took place in the Phoenix Park in 1908 with members of the Dublin City Boy Scouts (later Scouting Ireland S.A.I.) taking part.                                                                                                                                           In Dublin in the 1920s, two Roman Catholic priests, Fathers Tom and Ernest Farrell, followed the progress of Scouting and in  1926 the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) (Gasóga Catoilici na hÉireann) was created. CBSI would later become the largest Scout association on the island.

These organisations (other than the Alpine Club) are unlikely to consider themselves 'Mountaineering' clubs.  (It was even sugested that the AC was founded for 'gentlemen who enjoyed walking steeply uphill'! ) The CHA has designated itself a 'Rambling Club'.  However, all of them have facilitated the activity of climbing mountains among their members.

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