EDWARD LOVETT PEARCE AND THE HELLFIRE CLUB by MICHAEL FEWER

Included in the lands that came into William Conolly's possession when he purchased Rathfarnham Castle in 1724 was Mount Pelier Hill, the nearest of the Dublin foothills to Dublin city without a covering of blanket bog.  Its proximity to the grouse-rich Featherbeds, the roaming grounds for the descendants of the red deer brought to Glencree by thirteenth-century Norman kings, made it good hunting land.  One can imagine Conolly, still in his forties at the time, riding the bounds of his south Dublin lands with a group of companions and coming across this hill with its spectacular view of the city and bay, not to mention vistas as far as the Mournes in clear weather.  It is easy to suppose that it was on such a day that he decided the summit was an ideal location for a hunting lodge.  The fact that a huge Neolithic cairn on the hilltop would provide a ready-made supply of stone for such a project must have been a consideration.

 

It is thought that the lodge was erected around 1725.  Because of its vaulted stone roof, the building is perhaps one of the best preserved early eighteenth-century hunting lodges in Ireland, in spite of being burnt down, robbed of all its decorative stone to build a later lodge downhill to the north, and suffering a bonfire of tar barrels on its roof to celebrate the arrival of Queen Victoria in 1849.  In its original condition it must have been a most impressive sight.  In the centre of a well-proportioned Palladian façade a flight of cut-stone steps led up to the fanlit entrance door on the first floor, which opened into a porch flanked by wall niches.  Off the inner stair hall were the two main reception rooms, each with fireplaces and two tall windows looking out over that expansive view of the city and the bay.  The number and distribution of wall niches in the reception rooms suggest that the interior finishes were more than utilitarian.  Over one of these rooms there was a third storey, probably a bedroom, while on the ground floor were the kitchen and servants quarters.  Another room, possibly a bedroom, occupied a return at the rear: at ground floor level beneath this is a room that may have been a wine cellar.  At either end of the house, under lean-to roofs, there were stables, possibly one for horses and one for hounds, and outside one of them a stone mounting block is extant, to assist more corpulent huntsmen gain their saddles.

 

The building was sold after Conolly's death in 1729, and became a meeting place from time to time for the young bucks that made up the Irish version of London's Hellfire Club.  There are many lurid and probably exaggerated stories of their excesses, which included abducting young girls, setting fire to cats, and beating to death a dwarf who they had lured to the place for entertainment.  Thomas Conolly, grandson of William, is said to have met the devil there during a card game which ended with the devil flying up in a burst of flame and out through the high window in the gable.  The only incident that occurred that is on record, however, was the death of Charles Cobbe, son of the Archbishop of Dublin who died there in July 1751 as a result of a duel.

Some time during the 1750s the interior of the lodge was seriously damaged in a fire, after which the place was abandoned, but not before it had taken on the name of the club to which its final occupiers belonged, The Hellfire Club.  When Lord Ely of Rathfarnham built a hunting lodge a mile or so downhill in 1763 the old lodge was stripped of all its finer finishes, including the stone steps to the door, the window sills and the surrounding walls, which were brought downhill to be used in the new building.

 

Even in its present condition, stripped of all its cut stone, roofing and original plasterwork, it seems clear that this building is the work of an accomplished architect.  If indeed it is, the most likely candidate would have to be Edward Lovett Pearce (1699–1733), who has been termed the father of Palladianism in Ireland.

In 1724, the year that Conolly came into possession of the Rathfarnham lands, Pearce returned from his architectural studies in Italy.  While there he had met Alessandro Gallilei, (1691–1736), who had carried out the initial design work on William Conolly's tour-de-force, Castletown House.  Work had begun on the great house the previous year, and an architect was now clearly needed to progress the initial designs of Gallilei: it seems that, although a young man, Pearce had all the qualifications and knew Gallilei, and was the obvious choice.  It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that Conolly, during the course of his discussions with Pearce, might have taken him to see the site on Mount Pelier Hill where he proposed to erect a hunting lodge, and subsequently obtained a sketch design for it.

Would it not be a very fine thing if the landowners of Mount Pelier Hill, Coillte, would consider restoring this fine historic building, and turn it into a teahouse to serve the young and old of Dublin who are prepared to climb from the carpark to its wonderful viewpoint?