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Charles Barrington (1834 – 20 April 1901), an Irishman from Fassaroe, Bray
Charles Barrington's letter to his brother detailing his Eiger ascent
from the 1884 Alpine Journal {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrington, Charles Irish mountain climbers 1834 births 1901 deaths People from Bray, County Wicklow
Charles Barrington (1834 – 20 April 1901), an Irishman from Fassaroe, Bray County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...
, was a merchant with little or no mountaineering experience who led the first team to successfully climb the Eiger
The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends a ...
on 11 August 1858. Heinrich Harrer, in his book about the Eiger north face – '' The White Spider'' (1959) – noted that Barrington would have attempted the first ascent of the Matterhorn instead, but he did not have enough money to travel to Zermatt. With the support of two mountain guides, Christian Almer and Peter Bohren, he reached the summit of the Eiger via the west flank.
After the ascent, Charles Barrington returned to Ireland and never visited the Alps again. He owned and trained a famous racehorse, "Sir Robert Peel", that won the first Irish Grand National in 1870.
Barrington organized the first Irish mountain race in 1870, offering a gold watch to the winner of this running event, which was held on the Sugar Loaf mountain
The name Sugarloaf or Sugar Loaf applies to numerous raised topographic landforms worldwide: mountains, hills, peaks, summits, buttes, ridges, rock formations, bornhardt, inselberg, etc. Landforms resembling the characteristic conical shape o ...
in County Wicklow.
He died at his family home in Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin on 20 April 1901, and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery.
See also
*Amy Barrington
Amy Barrington (died 6 January 1942) was an Irish teacher and scientist who was closely associated with the practices and beliefs of eugenics. She published several papers on that subject as well as indexing a work on history. She also wrote an a ...
teacher, scientist and family historian
* Richard Manliffe Barrington of Fassaroe, scientist
References
External links
Charles Barrington's letter to his brother detailing his Eiger ascent
from the 1884 Alpine Journal {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrington, Charles Irish mountain climbers 1834 births 1901 deaths People from Bray, County Wicklow