A search for Higgs boson pair production $$pp \rightarrow hh$$ is performed with 19.5 fb $$^{-1}$$ of proton–proton collision data at $$\sqrt{s}=8$$ TeV, which were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. The decay products of each Higgs boson are reconstructed as a high-momentum $$b\bar{b}$$ system with either a pair of small-radius jets or a single large-radius jet, the latter exploiting jet substructure techniques and associated b-tagged track-jets. No evidence for resonant or non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is observed. The data are interpreted in the context of the Randall–Sundrum model with a warped extra dimension as well as the two-Higgs-doublet model. An upper limit on the cross-section for $$pp\rightarrow G^{*}_{\mathrm {KK}} \rightarrow hh \rightarrow b\bar{b}b\bar{b} $$ of 3.2 (2.3) fb is set for a Kaluza–Klein graviton $$G^{*}_{\mathrm {KK}}$$ mass of 1.0 (1.5) TeV, at the 95 % confidence level. The search for non-resonant Standard Model hh production sets an observed 95 % confidence level upper limit on the production cross-section $$\sigma (pp \rightarrow hh \rightarrow b\bar{b}b\bar{b})$$ of 202 fb, compared to a Standard Model prediction of $$\sigma (pp \rightarrow hh \rightarrow b\bar{b}b\bar{b}) = 3.6 \pm 0.5$$ fb.