The Reichenbach Irregulars

Events

Since the 1990s Sherlockians from all over the world have met at our conferences in the Swiss Alps.

Meiringen

How Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson came to Meiringen – and what you can still find of them there today.

“It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished.”

Thus Dr. John H. Watson opens “The Final Problem”, first published in the December 1893 issue of the “Strand Magazine”. The story takes Holmes and Watson in 1891, fleeing from Professor Moriarty, from London across the Continent to Switzerland.

“For a charming week we wandered up the valley of the Rhone, and then, branching off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep in snow, and so, by way of Interlaken, to Meiringen. […] It was on the 3rd of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder. […] At his advice, on the afternoon of the 4th we set off together, with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about half-way up the hill, without making a small detour to see them.”“The Final Problem”, Strand Magazine, December 1893

The inevitable follows. Watson is called back to Meiringen to attend a sick English lady. There he discovers that he has fallen into a trap – nobody knows of any sick lady. Back at the Reichenbach Falls he searches for Holmes in vain.

“Two lines of footmarks were clearly marked along the farther end of the path, both leading away from me. There were none returning. […] Any attempt at recovering the bodies was absolutely hopeless, and there, deep down in that dreadful cauldron of swirling water and seething foam, will lie for all time the most dangerous criminal and the foremost champion of the law of their generation.”“The Final Problem”

In 1995 Marcus Geisser (Sherlock Holmes) and Michael A. Meer (Prof. Moriarty) re-enacted Sidney Paget’s famous illustration “The Death of Sherlock Holmes” on the original spot. Granada TV also filmed “The Final Problem” in 1985, with Jeremy Brett, David Burke and Eric Porter, at the Reichenbach and Giessbach Falls.

The “Great Hiatus”

The world believed Holmes dead until, in 1903, Watson revealed the true story in “The Empty House”. Disguised as an elderly book collector, Holmes visits his old friend and explains:

“I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very simple reason that I never was in it. […] I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds, and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went.”“The Adventure of the Empty House”, 1903

Fearing Moriarty’s henchmen, Holmes went into hiding: as the Norwegian explorer Sigerson he travelled in Tibet for two years, passed through Persia and pursued his chemical research in Montpellier. The Adair case gave him the opportunity to return to London in the spring of 1894. Years later a case brought the pair back to Switzerland: in “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax” (1911) Holmes and Watson investigate in Lausanne – a letter from the Hôtel National was the last sign of life from the noble lady.

The unveiling at the Rössli, 1952

The local newspaper reported on the unveiling of the first Sherlock Holmes plaque in Meiringen (translated from the German):

“Sherlock Holmes” in Meiringen

Most of those invited by telephone to the unveiling of a memorial plaque to Sherlock Holmes at the Hotel Rössli probably thought it a premature April Fool’s joke. Although the affair was accompanied by a good deal of humour, it nonetheless turned out to be true. […]

In the presence of numerous guests from the authorities and the Meiringen tourist office, Mrs. W. T. Rabe of Detroit, on behalf of the Sherlock Holmes Club of the American occupation zone, Heidelberg (“Old Soldiers of Baker Street”), unveiled the plaque in honour of Sherlock Holmes, which was given a place of honour in the dining room of the Hotel Rössli. The whole ceremony consisted of taking several photographs of those present with the […] inscription and the characteristic accessories: the “Sherlock Holmes cap” with a peak at front and back, and the “walking stick” with a detachable handle concealing a square-section blade about 40 centimetres long. This photo report is intended for publication in various newspapers in America and Europe. Watching these original goings-on in silence, one could not help feeling caught between two worlds. While at one table the “Jass” was being played in the old Swiss manner, Mrs. Rabe did her utmost to Americanise the other half of the locals for a brief moment. To conclude, Mrs. Rabe showed the film “Sherlock Holmes on a walk from the ‘Rössli’ to the Reichenbach Falls”, which will also be shown on television.

From the point of view of publicity for Meiringen, this curious indirect tribute to the American [sic!] writer A. Conan Doyle is particularly welcome. Through it, these romantic waterfalls will become familiar to many foreigners, for in American and English detective literature Sherlock Holmes is a personality of the highest perfection in the field of crime.

With thanks to Mrs. Rabe and her Sherlock Holmes Club for this gift, the Haslital hopes to welcome a great many of their followers and acquaintances, who will surely be no less pleasantly impressed than Sherlock Holmes by the beauty of the Reichenbach Falls and the whole Haslital.

“Oberhasler”, no. 92, 18 November 1952

The Sherlock Holmes Museum in Lucens

Besides Meiringen, Switzerland has a second Sherlock Holmes museum, also with a reproduction of the sitting room at 221B Baker Street.

In 1965 Adrian M. Conan Doyle, one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s sons, moved into the Château de Lucens in the canton of Vaud and converted its wine cellar into a Sherlock Holmes museum.

In 1969 the BBC broadcast an interview with Adrian Conan Doyle, recorded in and around the Château de Lucens. It is a revealing document of its time and shows him in what was probably his favourite role – as homme de grandeur.

Since 2001 the museum, which also houses many items from the Conan Doyle family estate (such as his writing desk), has been located in the “Maison Rouge” in the centre of Lucens.

Visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Lucens

Literature

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are undoubtedly the classic pairing of master detective and loyal companion.

They were not the first – Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin and his anonymous friend, and Émile Gaboriau’s Lecoq and Tabaret, were Conan Doyle’s models. Nor the last – Hercule Poirot has his Hastings, and even the German television detective Inspector Derrick needs his Harry. Yet Holmes and Watson hold a special place.

Who does not raise an eyebrow on learning that Holmes keeps his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper and his cigars in the coal-scuttle? Who would not give a small fortune to read his monograph “Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos”? Who does not long to hear the cases “for which the world is not yet prepared”, such as the singular adventure of the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant?

The clever plots set against the crumbling British Empire of the fin de siècle, the dandyish master detective and his bourgeois chronicler become, in Conan Doyle’s unvictorianly plain prose, small – and sometimes great – jewels of world literature. Happy are those who can still discover them for the first time!

The Canon

Between 1887 and 1927 Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. These sixty adventures form the so-called “Canon”, a term borrowed from biblical scholarship.

Complete editions

English: The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, Penguin 2009. The Oxford Sherlock Holmes, 9 volumes, Oxford University Press 1993 (out of print). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (Leslie S. Klinger), 3 volumes, W. W. Norton 2004–05.

German: Sherlock Holmes-Werkausgabe in nine volumes, Haffmans Verlag (Zurich 1984 ff.; new edition by Kein & Aber, Zurich). Exemplary translation and excellent annotations.

Bibliographies

The most comprehensive Conan Doyle bibliography is by Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson (A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle; Oxford 1983, revised and expanded edition 2000). Ronald B. De Waal’s “The Universal Sherlock Holmes” provides an overview of the secondary literature. For German editions: Gerhard Lindenstruth, “Arthur Conan Doyle – Eine illustrierte Bibliographie der Veröffentlichungen im deutschen Sprachraum” (1994), and Michael Ross, “Sherlockiana 1894–1994” (Kempen 1995).

Pastiches and parodies

Holmes’s popularity soon inspired other writers to parodies and pastiches – even Mark Twain, Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. Their number exceeds the Canon many times over, yet only a small fraction comes close to the quality of the original. Once again, De Waal’s “The Universal Sherlock Holmes” is the starting point for an endless voyage of discovery.

Privacy

Controller. The Reichenbach Irregulars, Conan Doyle Place, Postfach 688, CH-3860 Meiringen, are responsible for the processing of personal data on this website. Contact: e-mail.

Visiting the website. When you visit this website, the web server stores technically necessary information (e.g. IP address, date and time, page requested, browser type) in log files. This data is used solely to operate the website securely and is not combined with other data. The website itself sets no cookies and uses no analytics or tracking services.

Fonts. Web fonts from Google Fonts (Google Ireland Limited) are loaded to display the typeface. In the process, your IP address is transmitted to Google.

Facebook. Posts from our Facebook page can be displayed on the home page. They are only loaded when you click “Show Facebook posts”. Only then is data (including your IP address and, where applicable, cookies) transmitted to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, including to the USA. Meta’s privacy policy applies to its processing of data.

External links. This website links to third-party content (e.g. YouTube, booksellers, museums). The operators of those websites are responsible for any data processing there.

Contact by e-mail. If you write to us, we use your details only to deal with your enquiry.

Your rights. Within the scope of the applicable data protection law, you may request information about your personal data and ask for it to be corrected or deleted. Please contact us at the address above.

Last updated: October 2026