William Spotswood Green

  William Spotswood Green was born 10 September 1847 in Youghal, Co. Cork,  the only son and eldest  of six children of Charles Green, JP, merchant of Youghal, and his wife Catherine Frances, daughter of Walter Fitzsimons. 

Educated at Rathmines School, Dublin (1859–61),  Midleton College (1861–7), and TCD (1867–71), he spent his childhood in the family home on the seafront in Youghal, where an obsession with boats, the sea, and fishing began.

His first written observations on natural history date from this period and include records of distribution of molluscs in Youghal Bay. 

His first climbing expedition abroad was in 1869, when, at the age of 21, he went to Switzerland with his friend J.S.Lyle.  He intended to climb Monte Rosa but his guide accidently burned the soles of his only boots.  He recorded little about this expedition except to say that 'I returned home feeling that a whole new world had opened up for me'.

The following year he was in Switzerland again with Lyle and his own cousin Henry Swanzy.  As well as doing a long walk of about 100Km they climbed Monte Rosa, Aiguille Bricola, Sparrenhorn, Finsteraarhorn and returned to Ireland on 31 of August.

After graduating in 1871 he took off to Norway's Lofoten area that was then largely unexplored and later became a popular mountaineering destination.  He had set his sights on climbing Higravstinden but seems to have made the first ascent of  a lower summit.

On Aoraki

Ordained deacon of the Church of Ireland in 1871 and to the priesthood the following year and was appointed curate of Kenmare  from where he moved to Carrigaline  in 1878.

Aoraki, or Mount Cook (3,754m) as it was then called, is the highest summit in New Zealand and this is where Green focused his attention.  Along with two Swiss guides he reached, almost, to the summit in what turned out to be an epic of survival in extreme weather conditions. in 1882.

Returning to Ireland he wrote an account of the expedition  (The High Alps of New Zealand) and lectured on it to the Royal Irish Academy (R.I.A) and the Royal Geographical Society (R.G.S).

Green's cousin and climbing partner of earlier years was a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and attended its convention in Western Canada.  He returned with tales of magnificent and almost untouched mountains.

In 1888 the cousins made up what was perhaps the first solely Irish expedition team to explore and map any mountain range outside of Europe.  To Green, it must have seemed as if he was upholding the standard of Ball, Tyndall and Adams-Reilly during the Golden Age of Alpinism.  (R.W Sandford).

Selkirks.

                                                                        

As part of their surveying they climbed as many summits as they could in the time available and named Mounts Dawson, Fox, Donkin, Deville, Macoun and Perley Rock.   Two peaks were later named Mount Green and Mount Swanzy.

His account of the expedition was published as 'Among the Selkirk Glaciers', was published in 1890 and was the first book written about the Canadian mountains and his description of the 'perfect alpine paradise' led many European climbers to head for the Canadian west that resulted in a burgeoning climbing fraternity in that country.

He is credited with recommending the location for a small chalet to the Canadian Pacific Railway that would grow to become the Chateau Lake Louise hotel.

Another aspect of his life was that he made a notable contribution to the Irish sea-fishing industry.

For on overview of his life see here (DIB)

Detailed accounts of his mountaineering in:

In Search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers,  Frank Nugent (The Collins Press); and

William Spotswood Green, Paddy Leahy, Vol 4, IMEHS Journal of Mountaineering Ireland

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Henry Swanzy

Henry Swanzy (1841-1906) was a scion of the family of Henry Swanzy who came to Ireland with the army of William III (of Orange) in 1689 and settled in Co Monaghan.  His father (also Henry) was curate in Youghal in 1835 when he married Elizabeth Green (aunt of Willliam S Green).  Henry, born in December, 1841,  was cousin (once removed) to the latterly famous artist Mary Swanzy and was Rector of Castlemagner, Co Cork, for 35 years.

There seems to be very little information available on his early years.  He attended Mr Wall's school in Portarlington for a time and then Rathmines School under Mr Benson, before entering Trinity College in 1861 from where  he graduated BA in 1865 and MA in 1868. Ordained Deacon in 1866, then priest in 1868, he was curate in Kilshannig from 1866 to 1871.

His first foray to the Alps was in 1870 when he joined his cousin, W.S. Green and another Irish clerical gentleman, J.S. Lyle, and climbed the Brevant.  They went on that season to cross a number of Switzerland's notable passes (Col d'Herens, Adler and Grimsel Passes) and climbed two 4,000m peaks - Finsteraarhorn and Monte Rosa, with eminent guides, Alexander Burgener and Peter Knubel.

There appears to be little mountain activities in the following years. However as a member if the British Association for the Advance of Science (now the British Science Association) he is likely to have had a serious interest in scientific matters and when that association held its annual meeting in Canada in 1884 he attended, along with another Irish climber and naturalist Richard M. Barrington.  In a post conference excursion they travelled to Lake Louise (Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Railway) from where Swanzy and Barrington continued on foot on the proposed route of the rail line through 170 miles of the Rocky Mountains. The trek took 17 days, crossing the Roger's Pass to Shuswap Lakes and Kamloops.

The Canadian mountains may have greatly impressed him for in 1888, at his suggestion and along with his cousin, W.S Green, he set off again in what was probably the first all Irish expedition team to explore and map any mountain range outside Europe. They spent from mid July to early September in the mountains, much of the time surveying the hitherto unexplored part of the Selkirk Range 'lying immediately south of the Canadian Pacific railway track and enclosed by the highest peaks of the Selkirks' in the region of the Illecillewaet Glacier.  It was particularly difficult terrain, especially below the tree line and on one occasion they spent seven hours in travelling 1.5 miles.

On Mt Bonney

Swanzy hunting.

Swanzy leading

 They used pack horses to carry their 'gear' and sought the   services of a 'packer'.  When 'some mighty hunter expressed   a desire to join us...when he heard we were two parsons he "chucked it up" in disgust... he would have to knock off   swearing for a month and that that was utterly impossible". 
 When their badly packed horse took a fall, smashing much   of  their technical equipment, they would have given their   erstwhile packer "permission to swear for five minutes   without stopping".

(Illustrations from Among the Selkirk Glaciers, Aquila Books, Calgary - reprint)

Despite such misadventures  they completed the survey, made a first ascent of a 3,000m summit (they named Mt Bonney for the Alpine Club president) and named numerous topographical features that retain the name to this day (Mounts Dawson, Fox, Donkin, Deville -later changed to Selwyn, Macoun - for Prof John Macoun, Dominion Botanist and Naturalist who assisted them, born in Co Down in 1831). Marion Lake was named for Green's daughter and Lily Glacier for Swanzy's daughter.  Mount Swanzy (1895) and Mt Green (by A.O.Wheeler) were later named in their honour.

After their survey work they spent time in the Lake Louise area and it was at their suggestion that an hotel be located there that resulted in the subsequent construction of what is now Chateau Lake Louise.

https://www.chateau-lake-louise.com/

Further details of the survey are available in Frank Nugent's In search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers

On their return to Ireland it was Green who gained fame as a result of the expedition from his lectures and the resulting book Among the Selkirk Glaciers. Swanzy seems to have faded into relative obscurity and it might be wondered if they ever hiked again in the mountains of Cork and Kerry in Ireland.

  

Mt Swanzy. Wikipedia

                                                                                                  

Mt Green. Wikipedia

Another Barrington, Richard

Courtesy:
F Nugent & Barrington family

 Richard Manliffe Barrington was half-brother to Charles, and was the only son of their father's second wife (Huldah Strangman). Born in 1849 at Fassaroe, Barrington was a delicate youngster, with a keen interest in natural science. He was educated mainly at home, with the exception of one year at a day-school in Bray. He entered TCD (1866), graduating with honours (1870) in experimental and natural science.

 In 1875 he was called to the bar, but soon found the life of a land valuer and farmer more to his liking. After the death of his father (1877) he became more involved with the management of the farm at Fassaroe. 

Growing up, he spent many weeks every summer on the islands, mountains and lakes of the south and west of Ireland gathering notes on plants and birds. Along with another Trinity educated mountaineer, Henry Chichester Hart, he contributed to Alexander Goodman More's 1872 publication, Cybele Hibernica.

On a visit to London in that year (1872) he attended a lecture in the Royal Institution given by John Tyndall and on his return went on a hillwalking holiday in Killarney where they went to the Gap of Dunloe, climbed Carrantuohill (with a local guide) and Mangerton, got a little lost in the fog on Mount Brandon, climbed Eagle Mountain and hiked around the area before returning to Dublin by train.

1876 saw his first Alpine sojourn, when he repeated his half-brother's ascent of the Eiger and it was by his encouragement that Charles wrote an account for the Alpine Club of his own ascent, confirming that it was, in fact, the first ascent of that summit.

His interest in botany and ornithology continued and he visited the western islands of Ireland and Scotland, Lough Erne and Ben Bulben, and visited Iceland in 1881, hiking extensively there and climbing Mt Hekla. Reports on the flora and fauna of such places were written and many published.  On one such visit (in 1883) to the Outer Hebrides he undertook what became an 'epic' climb on one of the sea stacks (Stack na Biorrach) and published an account in the Alpine Journal (May 1913. No 200).

Stack na Biorrach

  He wanted to compare the climbing abilities of the locals (who climbed to collect eggs and fowl) to that of the Alpine guides. This was soon after he had completed a spectacular season in the Alps (1882) when   the Schreckhorn, Finsteraarhorn, Eggishorn, Jungfrau and Matterhorn were climbed     -         a total ascent of at least 84,500 feet in ten days.

Henry Swanzy was a clergyman friend and together they attended the annual meeting of the British Association in Manitoba, Canada in 1884.  Afterwards they continued westwards through the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains on a gruelling journey through largely unexplored territory to reach the west coast, returning via Portland, Oregon and Chicago.  Swanzy's report of the mountains traversed was an influencing factor in the later explorations of his cousin William Spottswood Green.

It was Green who was his proposer for Alpine Club membership in 1886 and in 1889 he returned to the Alps with H.C Hart, climbing the Weisshorn and Dent Blanche.  This seems to have been his last Alpine season.  He died in 1915 leaving his natural history collection to the Science and Art Museum, Kildare St., Dublin.

Biorrach 
Marc Calhoun

See  here for details of his life;

and In Search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers, by Frank Nugent for more details of his Alpine career.

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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 

 Darby Field                                                             8 Louisa Tyndall

Tom Fitzpatrick                                                     9. Frederica Plunkett

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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Outside the Alps

Bryce.  Wikipedia

 The Golden Age of Alpinism is generally agreed to have ushered in a sustained period of mountain climbing in the Alps that made fashionable the idea of mountaineering as a sporting activity.  In the period between 1854 and 1865 thirty six summits higher than 4,000m (13,000 ft) were first climbed, 31 of them by British parties and their guides: we have seen that a significant number of the climbers were Irish.  

A notable feature of the people undertaking this activity was that they were wealthy.  It required substantial financial resources to travel to the Alps, spend at least a couple of weeks there and to hire the necessary porters and guides to undertake expeditions that may have lasted for a number of days.  John Tyndall's initial foray to the mountains may have been an exception because he 'got by very cheaply' but that was before he did 'serious' climbing.

The local people who climbed summits did so mainly at the behest of the 'wealthy tourists' who employed them as guides and porters because their knowledge and experience gained through hunting and other activities.

Russell. Wikipedia

Cotter

Many of the 'summiteers' wrote of the experiences and the result was that  the interest in climbing mountains spread to many other regions in the years following the Golden Age.  Some of the Irish who were involved in the second half of the 19th Century were the following and not all were wealthy:

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Richard Cotter in North America.

James Bryce in many places

Henry Russell in the Pyrenees.

William Spotswood Green in Canada and New Zealand.

More about all these to follow.

The Golden Age of Alpinism - Ireland's contribution

 In Search of PEAKS, PASSES & GLACIERS is Frank Nugent's account of the Irish Alpine Pioneers who made a significant contribution to Alpinism during its Golden Age and the following fifty years.

The Golden Age of Alpinism is generally agreed to have begun with Alfred Wills' ascent of the Wetterhorn in 1854 that was the beginning of a sustained period of mountain climbing in the Alps that made fashionable the idea of mountaineering as a sporting activity.  Something of an austere figure, Wills was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales; an Irish connection was that it was he who passed judgement on Oscar Wilde.

John Ball

One of Wills' close friends and climbing companions was John Ball and he  '...was a man whose work in the Alps may...be characterised as that of the chief pioneer of mountain exploration, whether in its scientific, its practical or its literary aspects'. (WAB Coolidge, Ball's Obit.)

Some background:

John Ball, born in Dublin on 20 Aug 1818, a Roman Catholic, he was descended from a Cromwellian officer (Jonathan Ball) and was the son of Nicholas Ball, a barrister, a supporter of Catholic Emancipation and Daniel O'Connell, MP for Clonmel and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Nicholas's eldest sister Cecilia Ball (1784–1854) was superior of the Ursuline convent in Cork; his second sister Anna Maria Ball was a noted philanthropist; and his youngest sister Mary Teresa (Frances) Ball  introduced the Loreto order to Ireland. (D I B).

A precocious youngster, his first view of the Alps was at age nine and he was smitten.  His education took him to he Jesuit college at Oscott and later to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied under a number of eminent scientists (Airy, Henslow, Sedgwick) but his religion prevented him taking a degree.

Peaks, Passes & Glaciers

Details of his Alpine career are recorded in many places. He visited the Alps almost every year from the mid 1840s until his death.  He made the first ascent of  Monte Pelmo.  He crossed the main Alpine chain 48 times by 32 different passes, and another 100 passes on lateral ridges.

He was chosen as first president of the Alpine Club, instituted and edited its annual Peaks, Passes and Glaciers in 1859, the forerunner of the Alpine Journal; Ball's Alpine Guides,  published in three volumes ((1863-8), became, famously,  his most influential work.

During the 'Great Famine' in Ireland he was appointed an assistant poor law commissioner (1846–7), an experience that led him to write a tract, What is to be done for Ireland? (1847). His health broke down from overwork and he resigned, but returned as second commissioner (1849–51).   An unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Sligo borough in July 1848, he was elected liberal MP for Carlow county (1852–7), advocating church disestablishment and land reform...appointed .. under-secretary for the colonies (1855–7). He used the position to promote his scientific interests, notably the Palliser Expedition (1857) which discovered several possible rail routes across Canada.  After failing to be elected for Sligo county in April 1857, he stood for Limerick city at a by-election in February 1858, ... he was narrowly defeated... disillusioned him with politics .... to devote himself to science and travel, usually spending part of his summers in Ireland (he had a house at 85 St Stephen's Green, Dublin) and his winters in Europe or North Africa.

As Poor Law Commissioner he had an opportunity to visit many parts of this country to do some hiking. It was in about 1846, when he was visiting the Dingle Peninsula, that he noted features that were attributable to the action of glaciers.  Two years later he had an opportunity to examine the area more closely and reported signs of glaciation around Lough Doon, near Connor Pass, and that he walked along the moraine that extends down to the lower Lough Beirne.  He discussed the glacial features around Lough Cruite under Brandon Peak and the former existence of a small glacier on the NE side of Purple Mountain, where its moraine '...offers to the pedestrian the only path wherein his foot does not sink in the spongy masses of sphagnum...'  All this about ten years before the formation of the Alpine Club  [(See Journal of the Geological Society of Ireland IV for his report (1848-50)] and this shows that he undertook some mountain activities in his own country.

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Others to follow.:

John Tyndall

Anthony Adams Reilly