The Hellfire Club

A hunting lodge built in 1725 by William “Speaker” Conolly, then the richest man in Ireland. He chose the summit of Montpelier Hill in the Dublin mountains for its views of his two estates. His workmen demolished two Neolithic passage tombs for the stone, and one standing stone was set into the fireplace as the lintel.

Within a year a storm tore the wooden roof off. Locals said the spirits had done it. Conolly replaced the roof with stone slabs and gave the building its distinctive heavy silhouette. He died in 1729.

The lodge was then taken over by the Irish Hellfire Club, who met there between 1735 and 1741 for drinking, gambling, and a public performance of devil worship. It is now the most photographed ruin in the Dublin mountains.