The Hellfire Club is the name given to a ruined building near the summit of Montpelier Hillin the Dublin Mountains. It was built around 1725 by William Conolly, the speaker of the Irish House of Commons who purchased the land from Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton. The building acted as a viewpoint for Conolly's mansion at Castletown House, Celbridge, County Kildare. The building consists of two large rooms and a hall on the upper floor with a kitchen and servant's hall on the lower floor. The house was originally called “Mount Pelier”, the name now given to the hill upon which it stands; the original Irish name of the hill is unknown. The lodge was used as a meeting place for the Irish Hellfire Club and has a strong reputation for being associated with Satanism, the supernatural and the occult.
Click on the thumbs below to enlarge, then use your left and right keyboard arrows to navigate the photos from the Hidden Dublin Walks latest Hellfire Special Excursion
As with the exploits of other larger than life characters, the reality is that the stories of the Hell-Fire Club vary, but most mention the Eagle Tavern, once on Cork Hill (by Dublin Castle) as the main centre of operation, where the "Bucks" swigged Scultheen, a 'special mixture of whiskey and butter'. "Bucks" were a class of gent '"whose whole enjoyment and the business of whose life seemed to consist of eccentricity and violence"'. Those who participate in our regular historical haunted tour will hear more outside the area where the Eagle Tavern was suppossed to have once stood.