Archaeological excavations at the Hell Fire Club open to the public
By Aisha Bolaji
LOOMING over South Dublin, the Hellfire Club is one of the area’s most lonely and infamous places – one which grabs people’s imagination and in some cases the hairs on the back of their necks.
For anybody growing up in Tallaght, the Hell Fire Club has always been a place of mystery, spookiness and beauty – with the site providing spectacular views over Dublin.
Perched on Montpelier Hill in the Dublin Mountains, the burnt out shell of the ‘haunted’ Hell Fire Club – which dating back to 1725 was built as a hunting lodge for famous politician William Connolly, aka the Speaker Connolly – is this month undergoing an archaeological excavation, with members of the public invited to stroll up for a look.
The excavation will be carried out throughout the month of October, Monday to Friday, and members of the public are welcome to join archaeologists on site to see how they’re progressing and to learn about any discoveries they have made.
Star of the show this morning is this wonderful clay pipe bowl from around 1850. Ornamented with a dragon (or eagle) claw #HellfireClub pic.twitter.com/IOyBP9qZQw
— Abarta AudioGuides (@AbartaGuides) October 5, 2016
Funded by South Dublin County Council under the County Heritage Plan, the dig is being led by archaeologist Neil Jackman of Abarta Heritage with an experienced team of archaeologists and additional support from UCD volunteers.
Unknown to many who visit Montpelier Hill, two prehistoric passage tombs also mark the summit of the hill.
Very little information exists for these tombs so this archaeological research project aims to help uncover the prehistoric story of the largest of the monuments, located directly beside the well-known ruins of the Hellfire Club hunting lodge.
This is the third phase of a council-funded project to help uncover the stories of Montpelier Hill.
Phase 1 was largely research based and involved the undertaking of a geophysical survey with Earthsound Geophysics to discover the archaeological potential of the site. This information was augmented in Phase 2 by targeted test excavations to establish the nature of the archaeology.
According to the council: “The current phase of the project, Phase 3, involves the archaeological excavation of a portion of the large tomb.
“It is believed that this was once a large passage tomb, similar in some respects to Newgrange.
“Before it was largely destroyed, we believe it would have once been a large circular mound, with a stone lined passageway that led to a burial chamber.
“This type of tomb generally dates to the Neolithic period, around 5,000 years ago. We believe it is part of an extended cemetery of tombs that top a number of the mountains of South Dublin County, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, and County Wicklow.”
