On the top of Montpelier Hill is a strange building with an arched roof and sloping side wings. It was built around 1725 by William Conolly, an Irish politician, lawyer and landowner, as a hunting lodge.
The building gave name to the hill itself, the original name of which has been lost in time.
The building was built over the site of a prehistoric cairn and the stones from the cairn were used in the construction of the lodge. A storm blew off the roof shortly after the building was completed, and William Conolly died a few years later. According to the tradition, disturbing the pre-existing cairn cast a spell on the building and the builder.
Montpelier Lodge remained in an abandoned state for years until a group of noblemen and gentlemen took it up as residence for their club, called Hell Fire Club. A local folklore attributes to this club a number of deviated behaviours, like satanism, black magic and occult practices. It seems also that some of the members weren't human but more like demonic or supernatural creatures disguised in human shapes. The building was abandoned again when a fire damaged the structure around 1740. The Hell Fire Club then moved to a new location.
The building has also a reputation for being haunted.
The rooms have small windows and most of the inner walls have a dark shade, a trace of the damages made by the fire. The shape of the building, the poor light inside and the dark appearance of the rooms add to the unsettling fame of the site.
The building is about 27 metres long and 16 metres wide, with the entrance facing Dublin to the northeast (35°).
An OS trig pillar is on the southeast side of the lodge.
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