The life o' Reilly

Courtesy: Alpine Club

 In the Summer of 1864, Edward Whymper, the doyen of British Alpinism during its Golden Age, was climbing in the Mont Blanc area, making a number of 'First Ascents'.  His climbing partner was Anthony Miles William Adams Reilly, who hailed from Belmont House in Ledestown, just outside Mullingar in Co Westmeath.  Together they decided to continue the season in Switzerland by climbing the Matterhorn by the Hörnli Ridge.  However, Whymper was required to return to London on urgent business so the climb was not attempted.  As he says in Scrambles amongst the Alps "... if we had not been obliged to part, the mountain would, doubtless, have been ascended in 1864."  Whymper returned to Zermatt in 1865 and by the same route he succeeded in making the first ascent of this iconic mountain.  Such are the 'might have beens' of mountaineering.

With such a surname it might be expected that Reilly had Cavan connections.  Indeed, his great-grandfather was Thomas O'Reilly of Roebuck, Co Cavan.  Over a few generations the O' was lost, the Adams was gained, along with property in Westmeath and Cavan.  Anthony was known to most as, simply, Adams Reilly.

Little is recorded of his early years in Mullingar.  He was educated in Rugby school, where he was sent, aged 12, on the death of his father in 1848 and at Brasenose College, Oxford.  There, he came under the influence of George Barnard, the Drawing Master and later a member of the Alpine Club, and probably read Travels through the Alps of Savoy (by J D Forbes).  He later acknowledged that it was Forbes' book that first aroused his interest in the Alps.

1861 was his first substantial season of Alpine climbing - with Leslie Stephen he made the second attempt on the East arête of Lyskamm, climbed Monte Rosa and Mt Blanc (twice, by different routes), all of which helped him gain membership of the Alpine Club in March 1862.  Later that year when he was back again in the Mt Blanc region he was struck by the deficiencies in the maps being used.  Not alone were the heights of peaks and extent of glaciers inaccurate but some non-existent summits and ridges were shown.  He decided to remedy the situation himself by carrying out a survey of the Mt Blanc massif himself.  He was encouraged in this by meeting with J.D. Forbes whose book had inspired his early interest in the mountains, in early 1863.  Through Forbes' persuasion he decided to undertake a thorough survey of the Mont Blanc chain the following year.

Edward Whymper saw Reilly as 'a man of wonderful determination and perseverance' who might make a suitable companion for renewed attacks on the Matterhorn.  The invitation was issued and gladly accepted by Reilly, but only on condition that  Whymper would assist with the revision survey.  Thus it transpired that they were climbing together in July of 1864 in the Mont Blanc area making a number of first ascents (Mont Dolent, Aiguille de Trélatéte, Aig d'Argentière).  The survey was completed, the map published by the Alpine Club in 1865.  He had assisted the French surveyors in their work and they subsequently named a number of mountain features near Chamonix in his honour ( Aiguille Adams-Reilly, Col Adams Reilly).

He was well liked by his climbing colleagues and locally in the Alps.  At Chamonix "almost every man, woman and child...had a pleasant smile for him and a 'bon soir' M. Reilly".  He lived for some years around 1870 in Mullingar and difficulties in Ireland troubled and affected him so that in 1881 he determined "to dwell amongst his own people" and he moved to Delgany, Co Wicklow but suffered from ill health.  He died in April 1885, the result of a stroke and is buried near Nenagh in Co Tippersary where his Alpine Club friends arranged the erection of an impressively carved Celtic cross in white marble to mark his grave.  C.E Mathews, who attended the burial, paid moving tribute to his dear friend and climbing partner - "...I never once heard him say anything to anyone's disparagement or pass an unjust judgement upon a single human being.  What wonder that there should be so many who loved him so well and who miss him so sorely?...one of the sweetest souls ever given to the sons of men; but memory of his friendship remains behind a pure, a sacred, and priceless possession".

A R's Mt Blanc map detail.   Alpine Club

From Whymper's 'Scrambles'

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See Journal of IMEHS Vol 2, 2002 for more details of Anthony Adams Reilly

at:  Here

and In search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers, by Frank Nugent, Collins Press, 2013.

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