Montpelier Hill or Mountpelier, also known as Slieve Gorra, is a hill in County Dublin, Ireland, with a height of . It is at the northern edge of the Wicklow Mountains and overlooks Dublin city. On its summit is an infamous ruined sporting lodge known as the Hell Fire Club.
There are two flattened prehistoric passage tombs on the summit. Around 1725, stones from these tombs were used to build a sporting lodge for Anglo-Irish politician William Conolly. The lodge was used by the Dublin Hellfire Club, a private club for upper class young men who reportedly engaged in debauchery, occult activities, and ritual murder. The building has since become associated with the paranormal and is reputedly haunted.
Montpelier Hill is popular for hillwalking. On the slopes is a forestry plantation, known as Hell Fire Wood, which consists of Sitka spruce, larch and beech. The hill and much of the surrounding lands are owned by the state forestry company Coillte and are open to the public. At the eastern foot of the hill are the ruins of Killakee Estate, the former country estate of the Massy family, and the Stewards House. To the west, the hill overlooks the Glenasmole valley.Healy, p. 36.
Name The hill is also known as Slieve Gorra, which derives from Irish. The modern English name Mountpelier or Montpelier Hill comes from Mount Pelier House, a now-ruined Anglo-Irish country house on the northern slope of the hill.Joyce, p. 125.
The historian and archaeologist Patrick Healy has suggested that the hill is the place known as or in the , the twelfth-century diocesan register book of the Archbishops of Dublin.Healy, p. 47.
Prehistoric monuments
The remains of the prehistoric monument that originally stood at the summit can be seen to the rear of the Hell Fire Club building. Austin Cooper, on his visit in 1779, described it thus: "behind the house are still the remains of the cairn, the limits of which were composed of large stones set edgeways which made a sort of wall or boundary about high and withinside these were the small stones heaped up. It is diameter or in circumference. In the very centre is a large stone long and broad and about thick not raised upon large stones but lying low with the stones cleared away from about it. There are several other large stones lying upon the heap."Fewer, p. 69. It appears from this description that the central chamber of the monument – which was a passage grave – survived intact even after Mount Pelier was constructed. The historian Peter J. O'Keefe has suggested that many of the stones were taken away and used in the construction of the Military Road at the start of the nineteenth century. Today, all that remains is a circular mound in diameter and up to high with a dip at the centre where the chamber was located. The four large stones at the edge are all that survive of the kerbstones that formed the boundary of the monument.Fourwinds, p. 24. In close proximity is a second mound, high, on which an Ordnance Survey trig pillar stands. Close to the monument is a fallen standing stone, a pointed rock high.Fourwinds, p. 132.
However, in October 2016 a further excavation discovered a huge passage grave similar to that at Newgrange, probably dating back 5,000 years, under the ruins.
The Hell Fire Club
William Conolly's Hunting Lodge The building now known as the Hell Fire Club () was built around 1725 as a hunting lodge by William Conolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.Handcock, p. 86-87. Over the years it came to be known as "The Shooting Lodge", "The Kennel",Handcock, p. 86. "Conolly's Folly", 'The Brass Castle' and "The Haunted House".Joyce, p. 123. The building and hill were also nicknamed 'Bevan's Hill'.'The Angling Excursions of Gregory Greendrake' by Henry Brereton Cody – p. 122
While the building has a rough appearance today, the architecture is of a Palladian design. The upper floor consists of a hall and two reception rooms. On the eastern side, there was a third, timber-floored, level where the sleeping quarters were located.Fewer, p. 70. On the ground floor are a kitchen, servants' quarters and stairs to the upper floors. The entrance, which is on the upper floor, was reached by a long flight of stairs which is now missing.Handcock, p. 87. At each side of the building is a room with a lean-to roof which may have been used to stable horses.Healy, p. 44. A stone mounting block to assist people onto their horses can be seen on the eastern side. To the front there was a semi-circular courtyard, enclosed by a low stone wall and entered by a gate.Joyce, p. 124. The house faces to the north, looking over Dublin and the plains of counties Meath and Kildare, including Conolly's primary residence at Castletown House in Celbridge.Ball, p. 40. The grounds around the lodge consisted of a deer park. The identity of the architect is unknown: the author Michael Fewer has suggested it may have been Edward Lovett Pearce (1699–1733) who was employed by Conolly to carry out works at Castletown in 1724.
There was a prehistoric burial site at the summit of Mount Pelier Hill and stones from it were used in the construction of the lodge. A nearby standing stone was also used for the lintel over the fireplace.Fourwinds, p. 131. Shortly after its completion, a great storm blew the original slate roof off. Local superstition held that this was the work of the Devil, an act of revenge for disturbing the ancient cairn.Healy, p. 45. Conolly had the roof replaced with an arched stone roof constructed in a similar fashion to that of a bridge. This roof has remained intact to the present day, even though the building has been abandoned for over two centuries and despite the roof being set alight with tar barrels during the visit of Queen Victoria to Ireland in 1849.Handcock, p. 88. There is little evidence that the lodge was put to much use. Conolly himself died in 1729.
History of the Dublin Hellfire Club
The Irish Hell Fire Club was founded around 1737 by Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, and James Worsdale.Ryan, p. 29. It was one of several elite secret societies referred to as Hellfire Clubs that existed in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. Lord Rosse was probably the president of the club.Ryan, p. 22. Evidence of the identities of other members comes from a painting by Worsdale entitled The Hell Fire Club, Dublin, now held by the National Gallery of Ireland, which shows five members of the club seated around a table.Ryan, pp. 30–34. The five men are Henry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry (who was tried for murder and convicted in 1739);Ryan, pp. 53–57. Simon Luttrell, Lord Irnham; Colonel Henry Ponsonby; Colonel Richard St George and Colonel Clements. Most of their meetings occurred in Dublin city centre at the Eagle Tavern on Cork Hill, near Dublin Castle.Ryan, pp. 34–35. Accounts of the club's meetings claim that members drank "scaltheen", a mixture of whiskey and hot butter, and that they left a chair vacant at each gathering for the Devil.Lord, p. 63. The club's mascot was a black cat.
At some stage, the lodge at Mount Pelier was let to the club by the Conolly family (coincidentally, William Conolly had purchased Mount Pelier Hill from Philip, Duke of Wharton, founder of the first Hell Fire Club in 1719.Lord, p. 62.).Ashe, p. 63.
It is not clear to what extent, if any, the Hell Fire Club made use of the building. The author Michael Fewer has suggested that the remoteness of Mount Pelier's location is why there are almost no verifiable accounts of the activities that went on there. However, numerous stories surrounding the building have become part of local folklore, some of which have spread to a wider audience through publication in the nineteenth century in books such as Robert Chambers' Book of Days (1864) and in The Gentleman's Magazine (1731–1922).
One of the best-known of these tells of a stranger who arrived at the club on a stormy night. Invited in, he joined the members in a card game. One player dropped his card on the floor and when he bent under the table to retrieve it noticed that the stranger had a cloven hoof. At this point, the visitor disappeared in a ball of flame. This story, which is found in texts from at least the 1930s, is very similar to one associated with Loftus Hall, County Wexford.Walsh, p. 19. The Loftus family owned a hunting lodge – known as Dolly Mount – which was also to be found on Mount Pelier Hill.Joyce, p. 121-122.
Another story tells of a priest who came to the house one night and found the members engaged in the sacrifice of a black cat. The priest grabbed the cat and uttered an exorcism upon which a demon was released from the corpse of the cat.Walsh, p. 20.
One tale centres on club member Simon Luttrell, Lord Irnham, later Earl of Carhampton, one time Sheriff of Dublin. Luttrell is believed to have been the subject of The Diaboliad, a 1777 poem dedicated to "the worst man in England".Lord, p. 65. According to the story, Luttrell made a pact with the Devil to give up his soul within seven years in return for settling his debts but, when the Devil came to Mount Pelier lodge to claim his prize, Luttrell distracted the Devil and fled.
Other tales recount numerous drinking sessions and black masses at which animal sacrifices, and on one occasion the sacrifice of a dwarf took place.
At some point during this period, the building was damaged by fire. There are several stories connected with this incident. One holds that the club set fire to the building when William Conolly's son refused to renew the lease on the lodge. An alternative story claims the club members did it to give the building a hellish appearance. Another story recounts that, following a black mass, a footman spilled a drink on "Burn-Chapel" Whaley's coat. Whaley retaliated by pouring brandy over the man and setting him alight. The fire spread around the building and killed many members.O'Farrell, p. 85-86. Following the fire, the club relocated further down the hill to Killakee Stewards House.Ashe, p. 63-64. However, the club's activities declined after this incident.Ashe, p. 208.
The Irish Hell Fire Club was revived in 1771 and was active for a further 30 years.Ashe, p. 207. Its most notorious member was Thomas "Buck" Whaley, son of Richard Chappell Whaley. This new incarnation was known as "The Holy Fathers". Meetings once again took place at Mount Pelier lodge and, according to one story, the members kidnapped, murdered and ate a farmer's daughter. Whaley eventually repented and, when he died in 1800, the Irish Hell Fire Club disbanded with his death.
Later history
The antiquarian Austin Cooper visited the house in 1779 and found it in a state of disrepair.Healy, p. 46. Joseph Holt, a general of the Society of the United Irishmen recorded in his memoirs that he spent a night in the ruin of Mount Pelier while on the run following the 1798 Rebellion. Holt wrote of his experience, "I lay down in the arched room of that remarkable building. I felt confident of the protection of the Almighty that the name of enchantment and the idle stories that were told of the place had but a slight hold of my mind."Fewer, p. 72. The Conollys sold the lands to Luke White in 1800.Tracy, p. 28 They passed through inheritance to the Massy family of Duntrileage, County Limerick.Healy, p. 63. When the Massy family became bankrupt, the lands were acquired by the State. Today, the building is maintained by Coillte, who manage the forestry plantations on Mount Pelier's slopes, and have installed concrete stairs and iron safety rails across the upper windows.Walsh, p. 19
The Stewards House