The Cullinans

 Maxwell Cormac and Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan were born in Ennis, Co Clare.  The Alpine Club states that they were brothers - sons of Dr. Patrick Maxwell Cullinan, of Harmony House, Ennis.  By another source they may have been cousins. [At the time of Griffith’s Valuation Dr P.M. Cullinan held land in the parish of Kilchreest, barony of Clonderalaw, while Michael Cullinan held six townlands in the parish of Feakle, barony of Tulla Upper. He is recorded as owning 966 acres in the 1870s. His son Frederick FitzJames Cullinan was knighted in 1897.  Landed Estates. UCG].

Maxwell, the elder, (born 1843) had a stellar academic career - Trinity College, Dublin; Christ's College, Cambridge - Fellow, Lecturer, Junior Dean and Classical Lecturer.  Called to the Bar 1869, Assistant Professor of Latin at University College London, contributed to a number of volumes on historical and classical subjects.

His Alpine career was relatively short ( AC member 1875 - 80) during which he made some impressive ascents: Adler Pass and Strahlhorn, Schwartzberg Weisstor, Rothorn, Matterhorn were his qualifying ascents.  He lived abroad after 1878 and died in Rome in 1884.

Frederick. born in 1845, was educated at Ennis College and Dublin University but became a Civil Servant in Dublin Castle at age 19.  He moved to the higher echelons of the service in London and later again in Dublin where he also became a governor of the National Gallery.  His time in London allowed him to become very active in the Alpine Club (1878-83) and he visited the Alps a number of times, making some significant ascents, often with Gerald Fitzgerald.  His last recorded climbs in the Alps were in 1885.

Alpine Club

Back in Dublin he continued his mountain activities. It is likely that he visited Wales where he planned to build a house among the mountains he loved.

Created CB in 1894, knighted in 1897 and KCB in 1913.

He accompanied Henry Hart on the 'Hart Walk' to win the wager with Richard Barrington (1886).  He remained a member of the Alpine Club and attended its dinner for members resident in Ireland in 1906 that took place at the University Club in honour of its ex-president James Bryce.

He died in 1913 and his obituary was written by his climbing partner Gerald Fitzgerald, who said: He was naturally of a very retiring disposition, but for those whom he knew intimately he had many and great attractions : he was a good climber, fast, light and safe, and always a most eventempered, unselfish, and agreeable companion. (Alpine Journal 1914 pp 194)

One might ask what was the stimulus that sparked their first interest in climbing mountains.

See Frank Nugent's In search of Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers for further details of both.

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Robert Fowler

Aig du Chardonnet

Rahinston, Rathmoylan

 Robert Fowler is, probably, one of the most under-appreciated of all the Irish climbers and mountaineers of the 19th Century.  Well before the foundation of the Alpine Club in London he was visiting the Alps and undertaking significant climbs.  He began in 1854 (the AC was founded in 1857) with ascents of a number of the classic cols and passes - col du Geant, Gauli Pass, Oberaarjoch and others and climbed with some of the best guides in the region such as Melchior Anderegg, Peter Knubel, Michel Balmat and J.M. Lochmatter whose names are linked to the foremost ascents of the era with the most prominent mountaineers.

Born in 1824 in Rathmoylan, Co Meath, the son of Robert and Jane Anne.  Little is recorded of his early years or of what inspired his initial interest in climbing and this  remains a mystery.  Substantial landowners in Co Meath, part of the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, his education and career  followed an expected path - BA from Trinity College in 1847, Irish Bar 1850, Deputy Lieutenant, Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of Meath in 1871.

Subsequent to his first Alpine season in 1854 he visited the Alps for twenty five seasons, joining the Alpine Club in 1865 the season in which he climbed Mont Blanc, Finsteraarhorn, Weisshorn, the Dom along with the third ascent of Aiguille Vert and first ascent of Aiguille du Chardonnet. His climbs, from the Alpine Club records, could be 'ranked simply as the classic best climbs of his era'.

As Frank Nugent points out, 'his substantial alpine accomplishments are not recorded in any of his Irish obituaries.  Alpinism appears to have been almost a secret pastime'.

He died in 1897, in Galway, and is buried in Rathmoylan.

Some of his climbs
Mumm's Register
Alpine Club

Alpine Club

Fowler on an ice ridge
Alpine Club

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