Investigation Summary
The Hellfire Caves are a man-made chalk cavern system beneath West Wycombe Hill, Buckinghamshire, England, excavated 1748–1752 on Sir Francis Dashwood's commission. The caves served as the meeting place of Dashwood's Hellfire Club, whose members included John Wilkes, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, and William Hogarth; Benjamin Franklin visited as a friend of Dashwood. Ghost traditions — principally the ghost of club steward Paul Whitehead and a figure named Sukie — are low-confidence claims traceable to ghost-tour tradition from at least the 1920s.
5 million visitors since reopening in 1951.