The Tyndall Way

From 1837-39 John Tyndall and his sister, Emma travelled the River Barrow towpath to Ballinabranna school, 4 miles distant. On the way they would occasionally join with their teacher, John Conwill who lived near the towpath at Rathornan and continued on to Ballinabranna. They followed the same path home in the evening and it is said that both teacher and pupil often worked out geometrical problems on the soft surface of the towpath.

On leaving school the young Tyndall joined the Ordnance Survey and worked for awhile in the Leighlin area. In 1840 he joined the Survey office in Youghal, Co. Cork. In 1841 he was transferred to Preston in England and was never again to be a resident of his native country but his links with Leighlin remained immutable.

While in Preston he did evening studies at the Mechanics Institute. Having severed with the Ordnance Survey he worked as a railway surveyor and in 1844 he took up a teaching post at Queenswood College, Hampshire.

After one year in Queenwood College the ambitious Tyndall left to study for a Ph.D. in Marburg University, Germany. On qualifying returned to Queenwood where he spent a further 2 years until his appointment to the Chair of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution of London in 1853.

Tyndall succeeded Michael Faraday as superintendent of the Royal Institution and remained there until his retirement. His name is remembered throughout the scientific world through the Tyndall Effect, Tyndall Scattering and Tyndallisation. Today the Tyndall Institution for Climate Change Research in England; the sister institution in Shanghai, the Tyndall Fudan Centre; the Tyndall National Institution attached to University College Cork and a gorge in Denver, Colorado all bear his name. In the geographical world he is also commemorated. Tyndall town in Manitoba, Canada and Tyndall town in Dakota, USA are called after him following his lecture tour of America.

[Map caption reads] , Map showing the Tyndall Way along the Barrow towpath to school in Ballinabranna.

[Chronological history caption reads] , The climb from the banks of the Barrow to the banks of the Thames , Tyndall was the first Irish person to be awarded a Ph.D., Marburg University 1850

[Bottom right text] , John Tyndall's reply to a toast by G. G. Stokes, President of the Royal Society at his retirement dinner in the Willis's Room, July 29th 1887.

"I have climbed some difficult mountains in my time, and after strenuous efforts for a dozen hours or more, upon ice, rock and snow, I have not infrequently reached the top. I question whether there is a joy on earth more exhilarating than that of a mountaineer, who having reached his object, is able to afford himself, upon the summit a foaming bumper of champagne. But, my Lords and Gentlemen, the hardest climb, by far, that I have accomplished, was that from the banks of the Barrow to the banks of the Thames , from the modest Irish roof under which I was born to Willis's Room. Here I have reached my mountaintop, and you , God bless you! , have given me a bumper which no scientific climber ever before enjoyed".