The Hellfire Club on Montpelier Hill

When

since c. 1735 traditional date – cannot be verified

Where

Montpelier Hill, Dublin Mountains, South Dublin, Ireland

Verdict

Legend

A hunting lodge built from the stones of a prehistoric tomb, where the aristocrats of the Hellfire Club are said to have played cards with the Devil.

What happened

On the summit of Montpelier Hill, above Dublin’s southern suburbs, stands the empty stone shell of an old hunting lodge. It was built around 1725 by William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, whose workmen broke up for building stone a Neolithic passage tomb that had crowned the hill for more than five thousand years. According to folklore the Devil, enraged by the desecration, blew the roof off, and Conolly had a new one built – a vault of solid stone. After Conolly’s death in 1729 the lodge stood empty, and from about 1735 it is said to have been rented by the Hellfire Club – a club of young gentlemen founded by Richard Parsons, Earl of Rosse, notorious for drinking, gambling and blasphemous jokes; its members supposedly drank “scaltheen,” a hot mix of whiskey and butter. The stories say an empty chair was left for the Devil at meetings, that a black cat was doused in whiskey and set alight, and that a young man at the card table noticed one player had goat’s legs ending in hooves. The club faded after Parsons died in 1741, and the building, partly gutted by fire, was a ruin by 1779. Today it is a popular walk – and a destination for night-time ghost hunts.

Witnesses

Oral tradition of the Rathfarnham and Tallaght area; modern walkers and paranormal enthusiasts; the archaeologists who excavated the summit in 2016.

Explanations and hypotheses

Historians stress that there is very little direct evidence of the Hellfire Club meeting on Montpelier Hill – the club’s link with the building rests largely on tradition, and the tales of black masses and sacrifices are mostly later embroidery. The motif of the Devil at cards, recognised by his hooves, recurs in many Irish legends (Loftus Hall among them). What is real is Conolly’s lodge of 1725, the destruction of the tomb – whose remains, with stone tools and megalithic art, were uncovered during the 2016 excavation – and the brooding reputation the ruin owes to its position high above the city.

Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.

Sources

More: Wikipedia (en)