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
Book of Kells of the 12th century. The abbey church was converted to a parish church in which the Book of Kells remained. The 12th-century writer Gerald of Wales, in his "Topographia Hibernica", described seeing a great Gospel Book in Kildare which many have since assumed was the Book of Kells. The description certainly matches Kells: Since Gerald claims to have seen this book in Kildare, he may have seen another, now lost, book equal in quality to the Book of Kells, or he may have misstated his location. The Book of Kells remained in Kells until 1654. In that year, Cromwell's cavalry