Abbey of Kells Abbey of Kells The Abbey of Kells ("Mainistir Cheanannais" in Irish) is a former monastery in Kells, County Meath, Ireland, north of Dublin. It was founded in the early 9th century, and the Book of Kells was kept there during the later medieval and early modern periods before finally leaving the abbey in the 1650s. Much of the Book of Kells may have been created there, but historians cannot be certain of the exact date and circumstances of its creation. The Abbey of Kells was reportedly founded by St. Columba ca. 554, after High King Diarmuid Mac Caroll of Tara
Kells Castle which was formerly the Gaelic Irish Kingdom of Osraige. It was abandoned by the following century when the focus of the town shifted to the bailey, and later to Kells Priory. Kells Castle Kells Castle or Kells Motte is a motte-and-bailey and National Monument in Kells, County Kilkenny, Ireland. Kells Castle is located just south of the Kells Bridge which crosses the Kings River, immediately behind Delaney's Bar. Motte-and-bailey castles were a primitive type of castle built after the Norman invasion, a mound of earth topped by a wooden palisade and tower. Kells motte was built on a gravel platform