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

University Club

seems that from among those living in Ireland that the first organised 'mountaineering' event was 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; 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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People involved (a list with links)

The following are some of the people involved with mountains, mainly during the 19th Century.  There will be further additions to the list in due course.

 John Ball                                                                1 Mary Burtchell

 Charles Barrington                                                 2 Susan Gavan Duffy

 Richard Barrington                                                 3 Elizabeth Hawkins-Whithed

 James Bryce                                                           4 Elizabeth Le Blond

 Edmund Burke                                                       5 Mrs Main

 Arthur David Mc Cormick                                      6 Mary Tighe

 Richard Cotter                                                         7 Beatrice Tomasson  

Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan                                     8 Louisa Tyndall

Maxwell Cormac Cullinan                                         9. Frederica Plunkett                                                  

 Darby Field                                                                                                                        

Tom Fitzpatrick  

Robert Fowler                                                         

Robert James Graves

William Spottswood Green

Ewart Grogan

 Henry Chichester Hart

Brian Merriman

John Palliser

Richard Pococke

Anthony Adams Reilly

Henry Russell

Henry Swanzy

John Tyndall

Buck Whaley

Arthur Oliver Wheeler

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John Tyndall

 John Tyndall has been regarded as Ireland's first Great Mountaineer.

Born in Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow, in 1820/21 (he wasn't sure himself), after attending a local National school he joined the Ordnance Survey as a Civil Assistant working in Carlow and Cork before transferring to northern England  during the railway mania of the mid 1840s.  After this he worked briefly as a teacher at Queenwood College in Hampshire before going to Marburg in Germany, taking a doctorate at the University there.  It was from Marburg that he first visited the Alps.  On his return to England he spent a short time at Queenwood school, gave a brilliant lecture to the Royal Institution in 1853 and soon after was appointed as its Professor of Natural Philosophy and took over from Michael Faraday as superintendent there in 1867.

The Ascent of John Tyndall by Roland Jackson is the first major biography for over 70 years, in which he paints a detailed portrait of John Tyndall and his world and describes both Tyndall's scientific achievements and his major mountaineering expeditions.

It was on his return to the Alps in 1856 along with Thomas Huxley for research purposes, that his passion for the mountains really began and although he never neglected the scientific aspects he later declared that 'glaciers and mountains have an interest for me beyond the scientific ones, they have been for me the well-springs of life and joy.'

The Weisshorn is regarded by some as the finest peak in the Alps because of its scale and shape and
relative remoteness.  Its first ascent, in August 1861, along with guides Bennen and Wenger, was Tyndall's finest mountaineering accomplishment - one of the great ascents of the Golden Age.  The mountain had rebuffed a number of previous attempts and on reaching the summit Tyndall was emotionally overwhelmed - 'the delight and exultation experienced were not of Reason or Knowledge, but of Being...in the transcendent glory of Nature I forgot myself as a man.'

Of course he carried out many other mountain exploits.  He was a serious challenger to Edward Whymper in his attempts to climb the Matterhorn and he reached a point on the mountain - the highest before it was finally climbed, Pic Tyndall - that still bears his name.

Tyndall was a prolific author and as well as publishing many works on scientific subjects his books on mountaineering went a long way to popularise the activity. 

Compared to his Alpine climbing his walking/hiking/climbing in Ireland would pale into insignificance.  However, it is recorded that he undertook some adventures here.  In his 'Hours of exercise in the Alps' he has a chapter entitled 'Killarney' where he recounts some of these adventures, including his climb of Eagle Rock, that the local lads would not attempt.  Also, in 1864 he undertook a walking tour in northern Ireland with his friend Tom Hirst and climbed the Slieve League sea cliffs - the first recorded ascent - as well as scrambling on the Antrim headlands.

(see Carloviana, 2020 pp 82)

Read some of John Tyndall's mountaineering works:

Mt Tyndall, USA

Mountaineering in 1861
Glaciers of the Alps
Hours of Exercise in the Alps
Forms of water

He gained worldwide fame through his science and mountaineering, as a result of which numerous geographic features around the world have been named in his honour:

Mount Tyndall (Sierra Nevada, USA)
Mount Tyndall (Tasmania)

Mount Tyndall (New Zealand)

Tyndall Glacier ( Torres del Paine Nat Park, Chile)
Tyndall Glacier and Creek
(Colorado, USA)
Tyndall Glacier (Mt Kenya) 
Tyndall Mountains (Antarctica)

Also;
Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, USA: and
Tyndall, Manitoba, Canada.

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Mountain men

Someone with only a passing interest in the American 'Wild West' will have heard of Jim Bridger or Kit Carson. These were two of the 'Mountain Men'.  Such men were trappers and buffalo hunters.  They also worked as guides to the army and to wagon trains traveling west.

Tom Fitzpatrick was such a man and a contemporary and friend of Bridger and Carson.  Born in Co Cavan in 1799, he had six siblings (two brothers, four sisters) and left for New Orleans by age 17, from where he went on to St Louis.  By 1823 he had joined the second Ashley Expedition.  Ashley appointed him second in command to Jedediah Smith on an overland expedition into Wyoming to find a pass through the Rockies later that year. Smith was attacked by a grizzly bear and badly injured during his group's move westward, and young  Fitzpatrick found himself the leader for a time. 

In March 1824, they discovered the South Pass through the Rockies in what is southwest Wyoming today.  (Possibly re-discovered  - it seems that  the first recorded crossing was made on 22 Oct. 1812 by Robert Stuart, and six companions from the Pacific Fur Company of John Jacob Astor; and had been used by native peoples for centuries).  It was an essential geographical feature in Western history and it was later a vital part of the Oregon Trail and the route of the transcontinental railroad.

South Pass

In the late spring of 1841, the first large immigrant wagon train left Missouri headed along  Oregon Trail,
but their destination was California - Bidwell-Bartleson party.  The man they hired to guide them on this dangerous venture was Thomas Fitzpatrick.

Details of the life of Tom Fitzpatrick:  here

Today, in the West he loved, you will find him commemorated in Wyoming, with both Mount Fitzpatrick in the Salt River Range and the Fitzpatrick Wilderness, and by  Broken Hand Peak in Colorado.  He treated Native Americans with a respect and honesty that was very rare in the mid-19th century.

If his services had been used by the following group there might have been a different outcome!

A cohort of Irish people that had a traumatic interaction with North American mountains were the Breen and Reed families.  They were part of the ill-fated Donner Party that became snow-bound at Truckee Lake (later called Donner Lake) high in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1836/7 while trying to make their way to California.  The heads of the families were Irish born - Patrick Breen near Ballymurphy, under the Blackstairs Mountains, in Co Carlow and James Reed in Co Armagh, - as were some others. The full story makes harrowing reading.  Many members of the wagon train died before rescue arrived in early 1847. 

 The Breens  and Reeds were the only complete families to survive and

© liam murph cc-by-sa/2.

 some of the survivors resorted to cannibalism.  The Breens succeeded in making a good life in California and before 1869 there was a donation from Mrs Breen of a gift of £9 towards the erection of a belfry and bell and also a Cross for her native chapel at Ballymurphy.

View the full story Here

and a full account of the Breen family in:

Carloviana - Journal of the Old Carlow Society. 1991/92,  pp 4, 'The Breens of the Donner Party' by  Joseph A King.

By no stretch of imagination could it be claimed that such people were exploring and trekking in the mountains for recreational reasons.  The mountains were a barrier that had to be overcome.

 However, it was about this time (mid 1800s) that the attitude to mountains, particularly in Europe was undergoing a significant change.  Under the influence of philosophers, writers and artists of the Romantic Era the mountain regions became 'The Playground of Europe'. 

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