KELLS, COUNTY KILKENNY
From Atlas and Cyclopedia of Ireland (1900)
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RUINS AT KELLS.—Kells, a place of great antiquity, though now reduced to a small hamlet, is situated on the Kings River. Its ruins of churches and castles, however, strikingly attest its former importance. It was founded by Geoffrey Fitz-Robert, one of Strongbow's followers, as a point of vantage to resist the Tipperary clans, who for a long period gave the invader no peace. This invader, like many other of the Anglo-Norman intruders of the time, was pious enough to build a monastery in 1183, on the land of which he had despoiled the native owners. He filled the priory with monks from Cornwall, and endowed it with large possessions. The prior was a lord of parliament, and the establishment over which he presided was one of the largest and richest of the period, as may be seen in the extent of its ruins to-day. It was dissolved by Henry VIII. in the thirty-first year of his reign. The whole district is dotted with antiquities, many of them in a perfect condition.
Ruins at Kells
Description of County Kilkenny | St. Canice's | St. Kiernan's College | Ruins at Kells | Celtic Cross, Kells | Kilkenny Map