Victoria Hotel, Killarney. | Friday
My dear Dr Jones
I must now report progress and am happy to be able to send a good report. I reached this place on Friday evening last; next day I walked through the Gap of Dunloe;2 had a boat to meet me at the head of the Upper Lake and rowed through all three lakes home. It rained all the time. Next day I went to the summit of Mangerton:3 the next rowed on the lake and rambled through Muckross Abbey and Demesne.4 I have climbed the Eagle Rock mounted the Purple mountain,5 and done sundry other things. My health strengthened from the very first, and if I could only remain I should absolutely get stout. I never experienced so great and quick a change for I was very much worn down. The exercise I went through yesterday was very trying, but this morning I feel as springy as a greyhound. My sleep is good and my appetite enormous. I can drink beer, wine brandy and Cork whiskey; and can also smoke with impunity. Had I not some examination papers to prepare I would forego Oxford6 and remain here. These Lakes are exquisite—the loveliest things I have ever seen. Yesterday the scene from the summit of the Purple Mountains was indescribably beautiful. I shall be at home on the 26th, good bye
Ever Yours | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/TYP/3/793b
LT Transcript Only
[22 June 1860]: according to Thomas Hirst, Tyndall left for Ireland on 14 June and returned to England on 26 June (Hirst Journal, RI MS JT/2/32/c/1540–2). It is therefore likely that he arrived in Killarney on Friday 15 June, and that this letter was written a week later on Friday 22 June.
Gap of Dunloe: a mountain pass between the MacGillicuddy Reeks and the Purple Mountain remains a famous tourist excursion in a beautiful landscape of glacial origin, containing several lakes.
summit of Mangerton: Mangerton Mountain, in County Kerry, has a height of 839m or 2,753ft.
Muckross Abbey and Demesne: The Franciscan friary of Irrelagh, known as Muckross Abbey and now a ruin, was founded for the Observatine Franciscans about 1448 by Daniel McCarthy Mor. The Muckross Demesne is the estate around Muckross House, built in 1843.
climbed the Eagle Rock mounted the Purple mountain: the Eagle’s Rock is a formation overlooking one of the lakes; the Purple Mountain has a height of 832m (2,730ft).
I would forego Oxford: Tyndall did attend the Annual Meeting of the BAAS in Oxford, arriving on 28 June. He was present at the now famous encounter between Thomas Huxley and Bishop Wilberforce over Darwin’s recent On the Origin of Species.
Please cite as “Tyndall1717,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on