spike source: wiki HELL FIRE CLUB Montpelier Hill (Irish: Cnoc Montpelier)[2] is a 383-metre (1,257-foot) hill in County Dublin, Ireland.[1] It is commonly referred to as the Hell Fire Club (Irish: Club Thine Ifrinn),[3] the popular name given to the ruined building at the summit. This building – a hunting lodge built around 1725 by William Conolly – was originally called Mount Pelier and since its construction the hill has also gone by the same name.[4] The original Irish name of the hill is no longer known although the historian and archaeologist Patrick Healy has suggested that the hill is the place known as Suide Uí Ceallaig or Suidi Celi in the Crede Mihi, the twelfth century diocesan register book of the Archbishops of Dublin.[5] Montpelier is the closest to Dublin city of the group of mountains – along with Killakee, Featherbed Bog, Kippure, Seefingan, Corrig, Seahan, Ballymorefinn, Carrigeenoura and Slievenabawnogue – that form the ridge that bounds the Glenasmole valley.[6] On the slopes is a forestry plantation, known as Hell Fire Wood, which consists of Sitka spruce, larch and beech.[7] Originally there was a cairn with a prehistoric passage grave on the summit. Stones from the cairn were taken and used in the construction of Mount Pelier lodge. Shortly after completion, a storm blew the roof off. Local superstition attributed this incident to the work of the Devil, a punishment for interfering with the cairn[citation needed]. Montpelier Hill has since become associated with numerous paranormal events. Members of the Irish Hell Fire Club, which was active in the years 1735 to 1741, used Mount Pelier lodge as a meeting place. Stories of wild behaviour and debauchery and occult practices and demonic manifestations have become part of the local lore over the years. The original name of the lodge has been displaced and the building is generally known as the Hell Fire Club. When the lodge was damaged by fire, the members of the Hell Fire Club relocated down the hill to the nearby Stewards House for a brief period. This building also has a reputation for being haunted, most notably by a massive black cat. Adjacent to the Stewards House is the remains of Killakee Estate. A large Victorian house was built here in the early nineteenth century by Luke White. Whites son, Samuel, oversaw the development of extensive formal gardens on the estate, including the construction of several glasshouses by Richard Turner. The estate passed to the Massy family through inheritance in 1880 and John Thomas Massy, the 6th Baron made extensive use of the house and ground to host shooting parties and society gatherings. The fortunes of the Massy family declined in the early twentieth century and Hamon Massy, the 8th Baron, was evicted from Killakee House in 1924. He became known as the Penniless Peer. Following the eviction, Killakee House was demolished and the gardens fell into ruin. Today Montpelier Hill and much of the surrounding lands, including Killakee Estate (now called Lord Massys Estate) are owned by the State forestry company Coillte and are open to the public. 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.[8] It was named Mount Pelier by Conolly but over the years has also been known as The Haunted House,[9] The Shooting Lodge,[9] The Kennel,[10] and Conollys Folly,.[10] It was one of several exclusive establishments using the name Hellfire Club that existed in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. Fisheye image of one of the reception rooms on the upper floor 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.[11] On the ground floor is 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.[12] At each side of the building is a room with a lean-to roof which may have been used to stable horses.[13] A stone mounting block to assist people onto their horses can be seen on the eastern side.[11] To the front there was a semi-circular courtyard, enclosed by a low stone wall and entered by a gate.[14] The house faces to the north, looking over Dublin and the plains of Meath and Kildare,[15] including Conollys primary residence at Castletown House in Celbridge.[16] The grounds around the lodge consisted of a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2; 1.6 sq mi) deer park.[12] 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.[17] There was a prehistoric burial site at the summit of Montpelier Hill and stones from it were used in the construction of the lodge.[9] A nearby standing stone was also used for the lintel over the fireplace.[18] 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.[19] Conolly had the roof replaced with an arched stone roof constructed in a similar fashion to that of a bridge.[14] 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.[19][20] Fisheye image of the entrance hall and stairs on the upper floor There is little evidence that the lodge was put to much use. Conolly himself died in 1729. The only known record of its occupation is an announcement of the death at Mount Pelier of a Mr Charles Cobbe, son of the Archbishop of Dublin, in July 1751.[16] This is erroneous, however. In fact, Cobbe died of a fever in Montpellier, France, early in 1751.[21] However, it was the period in the years following Conollys death that Mount Peliers association with the Hell Fire Club began. The Irish Hell Fire Club was founded around 1737 by Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, and James Worsdale.[22] Lord Rosse was probably the president of the club.[23] 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.[24] The five men are Henry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry (who was tried and convicted for murder in 1739);[25] Simon Luttrell, Lord Irnham; Colonel Henry Ponsonby; Colonel Richard St George and Colonel Clements.[24] Most of their meetings occurred in Dublin city centre at the Eagle Tavern on Cork Hill, near Dublin Castle.[26] Accounts of the clubs 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.[27] The clubs mascot was a black cat.[27] Fisheye image of the kitchen on the lower floor Mount Pelier was let to the club by the Conolly family.[28] Coincidentally, William Conolly had purchased Mountpelier Hill from Philip, Duke of Wharton, founder of the first Hell Fire Club in 1719.[29] 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 Peliers location is why there are almost no verifiable accounts of the activities that went on there.[30] However, numerous (and very doubtful) 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 Gentlemans Magazine (1731–1922).[27] 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 is a very similar story to one associated with Loftus Hall, County Wexford.[31] The Loftus family owned a hunting lodge – known as Dolly Mount – which was also to be found on Montpelier Hill.[32] Fisheye image of the stairs from the kitchen and servants quarters to the upper floor 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.[33] One tale centres on club member Simon Luttrell, Lord Irnham, later Earl of Carhampton, one time Sheriff of Dublin.[33] Luttrell is believed to have been the subject of The Diaboliad, a 1777 poem dedicated to the worst man in England.[34] 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.[34] Other tales recount numerous drinking sessions and black masses at which animal sacrifices, and on one occasion the sacrifice of a dwarf, took place.[33] 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 Conollys son refused to renew the lease on the lodge.[28] An alternative story claims the club members did it to give the building a hellish appearance.[35] Another story recounts that, following a black mass, a footman spilled a drink on Burn-Chapel Whaleys coat. Whaley retaliated by pouring brandy over the man and setting him alight. The fire spread around the building and killed many members.[36] Following the fire, the club relocated further down the hill to Killakee Stewards House.[37] However, the clubs activities declined after this incident.[38] The Hell Fire Club, just before dark The Irish Hell Fire Club was revived in 1771 and was active for a further thirty years.[39] Its most notorious member was Thomas Buck Whaley, son of Richard Chappell Whaley.[39] This new incarnation was known as The Holy Fathers.[39] Meetings once again took place at Mount Pelier lodge and, according to one story, the members kidnapped, murdered and ate a farmers daughter.[38] Whaley eventually repented and, when he died in 1800, the Irish Hell Fire Club passed away with him.[38] The antiquarian Austin Cooper visited the house in 1779 and found it in a state of disrepair.[40] 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.[5] 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.[30] The Conollys sold the lands to Luke White in 1800.[41] They passed through inheritance to the Massy family of Duntrileage, County Limerick.[42] When the Massy family became bankrupt, the lands were acquired by the State.[42] Today, the building is maintained by Coillte, who manage the forestry plantations on Montpeliers slopes, who have installed concrete stairs and iron safety rails across the upper windows.[31]
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:25:00 +0000
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