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, Dumfries and Galloway Kells, Dumfries and Galloway Kells, a former parish, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 14 miles (N. W. by N.) from Castle-Douglas, and 19 (N. by W.) from Kirkcudbright; containing, with the burgh of New Galloway, 1121 inhabitants. This place is supposed by some to derive its name from its elevated situation, of which, in the Gaelic language, the word is descriptive; others deduce it from the British Cell, on account of the extensive woods formerly existing here, and of which considerable remains are still found imbedded in the various mosses. The parish, which is one of the largest in the