Kells, County Meath Kells, County Meath Kells (; ) is a town in County Meath, Ireland. The town lies off the M3 motorway, from Navan and from Dublin. It is best known as the site of Kells Abbey, from which the Book of Kells takes its name. The settlement was originally known by the Irish name "Ceannanas" or "Ceannanus", and it is suggested that the name 'Kells' developed from this. From the 12th century onward, the settlement was referred to in English and Anglo-Norman as Kenenus, Kenelles, Kenles, Kenlis, Kellis and finally Kells. It has also been suggested that Kenlis and Kells come
Book of Kells followed by their "Breves causae". This anomalous order mirrors that found in the Book of Durrow, although in the latter instance, the misplaced sections appear at the very end of the manuscript rather than as part of a continuous preliminary. In other insular manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Armagh, and the Echternach Gospels, each Gospel is treated as a separate work and has its preliminaries immediately preceding it. The slavish repetition in Kells of the order of the "Breves causae" and "Argumenta" found in Durrow led scholar T. K. Abbott to the conclusion that the scribe