Hellfire club

DarrenCroker

Just decided to start this thread:)
Anybody ever have bad experiences or anything in the hellfire club?
Is it safe at night?
I heard devil worshipers do be up there at night?:eek:

Scrappychimow

The devil burnt it down when he was caught cheating in a game of cards.

theteal

Scrappychimow wrote: »

The devil burnt it down when he was caught cheating in a game of cards.

or someone saw his tail under the table or some such. . .

Raekwon

Those stories are all 100% true and having nothing to do with the vast quantities of opium & alcohol that were consumed.

HellFireClub

Lol anyone fancy a bit of poker hehe?!?

Seriously though, I've been up there so many times (hence my username), and it is a very hard building to go into at night, there is something about it that is very scary at dark, in the day time though, it's not like that at all I find.

I've seen evidence of rituals up in the house over the years, stuff that had been left lying around (candles, images and symbols, etc), since the previous night that I stumbled upon the next morning.

spider_pig

what's that head stone thing on the right of the house has that got to do with a memorial of some sort to someone who was murdered up there? as far as i can remember the date is not that old on it at all

Scrappychimow

theteal wrote: »

or someone saw his tail under the table or some such. . .

It was his hoof actually.

Scrappychimow

Merch

spider_pig wrote: »

what's that head stone thing on the right of the house has that got to do with a memorial of some sort to someone who was murdered up there? as far as i can remember the date is not that old on it at all

the trig point??

Paparazzo

Think a bunch of hippies head up there and stay the night every so often. Cool looking building, the roof gives it the creepy look imho.

uncle ernie

he enjoys a flutter alright

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUf7Is4zAQQ

HellFireClub

I can personally vouch for the fact that this really good little piece of local cinematography was shot up in the Hell Fire Club building itself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghH6tOg8IP0

_blank_

You can see the Devil's hoofprint in one of the fireplaces.

John Mason

we were there one halloween night

all the ghosties must have been away somewhere else

amazing views of the city

Tabnabs

Some nice pics and text here

http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/Surveys/Buildings/BuildingoftheMonth/Archive/Name,787,en.html

Paddysnapper

Fascinating. Thank you!

Sunnyisland

Not a bad idea about the suggestion for some tea rooms there,it would be a tremendous tourist & local draw.

seamus

HellFireClub wrote: »

I've seen evidence of rituals up in the house over the years, stuff that had been left lying around (candles, images and symbols, etc), since the previous night that I stumbled upon the next morning.

No to mention mountains of dutch gold cans, used condoms and empty johnny player boxes

realies wrote: »

Not a bad idea about the suggestion for some tea rooms there,it would be a tremendous tourist & local draw.

Unfortunately there would be a large number of health & safety issues in relation to running a business out of such a dilapidated building.

There's also zero facilities up there in the way of electricity, sewage or running water, so a simple tea room would actually be quite an enormous undertaking. At the very least, water pipes would need to be laid from Kilakee house and a pump installed to get it up the hillside.

The idea of a little cafe or something up there is great - it draws enough people as-is, but I can't help but feel that the work needed to make it capable of running a coffee and/or gift shop would ruin the building itself. Maybe make a small area beside it with tables would be a good idea, and offer vendors (like mobile coffee shops or cake stalls) licences to park up there at weekends and sells their wares.

HellFireClub

seamus wrote: »

No to mention mountains of dutch gold cans, used condoms and empty johnny player boxes

I've seen the lads from Coillte up there in a van loads of times clearing out the shíte and stuff that gathers from the odd party that goes on up there.

I was up there one morning a few years ago, just after the winter solstice and one of the upstairs rooms had been completely lit up with candles the night before (that were still burning the next morning) and there were various bits of occult stuff lying about, including a satanic pentragram carved into the floor using a white chalk like substance and rope, there was also a broken crucifx on the floor and orange twine, (like the kind you'd see used for a clothes line), lying around and with loads of knots tied as if someone or something had been tied up at the scene. There were also pages of what appeared to be a bible lying around the floor and goblets or old steel cups of some kind.

seamus wrote: »

Unfortunately there would be a large number of health & safety issues in relation to running a business out of such a dilapidated building.

There's also zero facilities up there in the way of electricity, sewage or running water, so a simple tea room would actually be quite an enormous undertaking. At the very least, water pipes would need to be laid from Kilakee house and a pump installed to get it up the hillside.

The idea of a little cafe or something up there is great - it draws enough people as-is, but I can't help but feel that the work needed to make it capable of running a coffee and/or gift shop would ruin the building itself. Maybe make a small area beside it with tables would be a good idea, and offer vendors (like mobile coffee shops or cake stalls) licences to park up there at weekends and sells their wares.

You can just imagine the kind of PS beaurocracy and roadblocking that you would run into trying to do something imaginative and creative like that in this country.

It would be an excellent place though for an art gallery with a restaurant or coffee shop onsite, or God forbid, a B & B or hostel to open up the Dublin Mountains to folks who wanted to hike onto Glencree and Glendalough.

The problem, like everything else in this country, is that unless it was permamently occupied, it would be vandalised and distroyed by scum.

DarrenCroker

Is it true if you say devil 3 times up the chimney the devil appears? I was up there the other day and i seen a syringe or however you spell it and a few burnt out candles and stuff like that

HellFireClub

DarrenCroker wrote: »

Is it true if you say devil 3 times up the chimney the devil appears? I was up there the other day and i seen a syringe or however you spell it and a few burnt out candles and stuff like that

Another time I was up there and found a dome tent pitched inside one of the upstairs rooms in the morning. The door of the tent was open and inside were two sleeping bags and usual camping-lite stuff, but there were around 20 UNOPENED bottles of Millar inside the tent!

What seemed have happened is that whoever the campers were, they very hastily abandoned the house at some stage the previous night for some reason or another, there was no sign of anyone up there or around the house when I arrived. Then a while later, two young lads came by and didn't want to see the beer going to waste so took it into the forest and started drinking it!

fontanalis

DarrenCroker wrote: »

Is it true if you say devil 3 times up the chimney the devil appears? I was up there the other day and i seen a syringe or however you spell it and a few burnt out candles and stuff like that

If you're after suing the syringe a lot of things might appear.

Conor Bourke

How do you actually get up there? I'm not long living in Dublin but would love to go up for a look.

DarrenCroker

Alaskimo-cake wrote: »

How do you actually get up there? I'm not long living in Dublin but would love to go up for a look.

Where abouts do you live?

Conor Bourke

DarrenCroker wrote: »

Where abouts do you live?

Ah yesh, that'd help, wouldn't it?!

I'm in Templeogue. Thanks!

Scrappychimow

DarrenCroker wrote: »

Is it true if you say devil 3 times up the chimney the devil appears?

Don't do it man seriously , the Devil will drop a petrol bomb down the chimney into your face- hes a fire starter , twisted fire starter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw

DarrenCroker

Alaskimo-cake wrote: »

Ah yesh, that'd help, wouldn't it?!

I'm in Templeogue. Thanks!

Do you know where oldcourt garden centre is?

Conor Bourke

DarrenCroker wrote: »

Do you know where oldcourt garden centre is?

Not the foggiest. I moved here from Limerick at the start of the month so I haven't a notion. If you can tell me the road I need to take, nearest village, anything like that to get me in the general direction?

Thanks

DarrenCroker

Alaskimo-cake wrote: »

Not the foggiest. I moved here from Limerick at the start of the month so I haven't a notion. If you can tell me the road I need to take, nearest village, anything like that to get me in the general direction?

Thanks

Do you know the old mill? Id be able to direct you from there

HellFireClub

Alaskimo-cake wrote: »

Not the foggiest. I moved here from Limerick at the start of the month so I haven't a notion. If you can tell me the road I need to take, nearest village, anything like that to get me in the general direction?

Thanks

Just take the Firhouse exit off the M50 Southbound and drive up the flyover/bridge at that exit over the M50 and towards Firhouse. It's the second left then I think at a new roundabout and keep going straight through the small roundabouts after you take a left. You'll start heading into the country and up a hill.

Turn left at a junction which says "Orlaith" on the wall across the way from where you are (it's an old school but it's off the road and the name of the building is "Orlaith" and it's on the wall at the entrance gate).

You will be climbing sleeply up the hill for a mile or two, you'll come to a T-junction, take the right and the HFC call park is about 1-2 miles up there on your right, you can't miss it.

Absurdum

Alaskimo-cake wrote: »

Not the foggiest. I moved here from Limerick at the start of the month so I haven't a notion. If you can tell me the road I need to take, nearest village, anything like that to get me in the general direction?

Thanks

stick your location in here, the "get directions" link

I used to go up there manys a time for parties etc. (we always took our rubbish with us!), the views over the city at night are great. I stayed overnight many times and never got killed by Satan.

myflipflops

Used to run up past it as part of a '3 peaks' Sunday mountain run back in the day. Even the building aside, it's a beautiful place. Always a joy (relief) to pass the building after going up the winding trail with dogs chasing you! I must take a trip up there when I'm home.

seamus

Jaysus HellFireClub, the building is 1500m from my house (as the crow flies) and your directions even confuse me

Maybe you meant to say take a right at Orlaith?

Alaskimo, the quickest route actually depends on what part of Templeogue you're coming from, believe it or not, and whether you'll be driving, bussing, walking or cycling.

Google maps will give you a direct route, but that may not be the best route for the mode of transport you're taking

sensibleken

spider_pig wrote: »

what's that head stone thing on the right of the house has that got to do with a memorial of some sort to someone who was murdered up there? as far as i can remember the date is not that old on it at all

Thats not a headstone. Its an orthostat that somebody carved a memorial into.

The building is built from material salvaged from a neolithic passage tomb, the outline you can still see from the roof. It forms a partnership with the cairns on tibradden and two rock.

The rock with the memorial on it could have been an outlying orthostat of the passage tomb as is seen on some of the larger ones like newgrange

Pics here:


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=65588634&postcount=61

The Mulk

Alaskimo-cake wrote: »

Ah yesh, that'd help, wouldn't it?!

I'm in Templeogue. Thanks!

After visiting the Hell Fire, try drop out to Castletown House in Celbridge at some stage. They were owned by the same person (William Connlly) and there's an interesting follow up to the devil story in which he followed William Connolly home to Castletown and dissappeared into one of the fireplaces which cracked and could never be repaired.
it's been a few years since I did the tour but this bit brought back memories of the Hell Fire Club stories.
You could drive it at weekends from Templeogue in 30-40 mins. or the 67 bus from Westmoreland St. stops at the gates.

HellFireClub

Sorry my directions are a bit wooly there, I just take the Firhouse exit off the M50, go up over the flyover and take the left at the next set of traffic lights. This brings you onto the road where the little row of shops is in at a car park to your left, (Eurospar, Extravision and Dwans Off License). Then it's straight all the way until you come to the junction at Orlaigh, where you turn left? The only other junction is the T junction onto Mt. Venus Road where you turn right and the HFC car park is a mile up there on your right???

Also, I don't remember that granite monument with the memorial engraved into it, being up there before the date on the stone, (I think it's 2002 or 2005 or 200X), but as a kid being up there in my younger days as a scout and then being up there then in my later teens when I'd have been walking around up there.

I think this granite memorial was placed there as a memorial to the person mentioned on it. Also I've no recollection of ever hearing about anyone murdered or dying up there over the years. I've asked people up there about this monument before and nobody has a clue who the person was, how they died or at what time was the monument placed there?

Can any other folks say for certain whether this stone was always sitting outside the house? Because my recollection is that it wasn't. My only memory of a large stone is the one sticking out of the path through the forest half way up the steep route up the hill...

seamus

HellFireClub wrote: »

Then it's straight all the way until you come to the junction at Orlaigh, where you turn left?

You're right. I've gone through there hundreds of times and never seen that "Orlagh" sign, only ever see the "Augustinians" sign. Had to check it on Google maps

If someone was coming from Templeogue village, it would be quicker to go up through Ballyroan & Stocking Lane, though your directions are simpler.

HellFireClub

Have ye found it yet OP?!? Best time for walking up here is the evening as the city lights are coming on...

vicwatson

The same story - re devil appearing whilst card playing - is the exact same for Loftus Hall on the Hook Peninsula in Wexford.

sensibleken

HellFireClub wrote: »

Can any other folks say for certain whether this stone was always sitting outside the house? Because my recollection is that it wasn't. My only memory of a large stone is the one sticking out of the path through the forest half way up the steep route up the hill...

Maybe my recolection is wrong. I thought it was but am having difficulty finding any old photos of it.

Tabnabs

Directions and maps here

I was up there early one random weekday about a week after Halloween one year and found a Scream mask in the grass nearby. I'd say that put the sh1ts up someone!

HellFireClub

Well, any feedback from folks on or off thead who went up for the first time recently?!?

Conor Bourke

Might tip up tomorrow if the weather holds! Will let you know how I get on

jaybro

Heard they used to have mad raves there years back, like Spiral Tribe hardtek madness... Should be revived!

deelite

Who owns the Hellfire Club now?

Joe10000

Have lived in the area all my life and have never been up there, heard loads of stories over the years. Might try to go up today.

sensibleken

deelite wrote: »

Who owns the Hellfire Club now?

Its owned by coilte as far as I know. Hopefully they just leave it alone and dont try and do 'something' with it

HellFireClub

deelite wrote: »

Who owns the Hellfire Club now?

As far as I know it's owned by Coillte.

HellFireClub

sensibleken wrote: »

deelite wrote: »

Who owns the Hellfire Club now?

Its owned by coilte as far as I know. Hopefully they just leave it alone and dont try and do 'something' with it

I'd say it's a protected or listed building, it's been there for a very long time and is in very good solid condition so I'd say it is safe enough for the moment!

LaBaguette

Was lookin for someplace intersting to take the bike to this weekend, now I know where I'll be going !

HellFireClub

LaBaguette wrote: »

Was lookin for someplace intersting to take the bike to this weekend, now I know where I'll be going !

Did ye see the divel?!? :D:D