Kells

Kells grew around an ancient monastery in the rich country of Meath. Its round tower and carved high crosses recall the community that gave the town its religious importance. The splendid illuminated Book of Kells was kept here for centuries, long after the monastic settlement had become a walled market town near the edge of the English Pale.

The dissolution of the monasteries weakened the old ecclesiastical community. In the 1650s, during the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland, the book left Kells and the town's lands were redistributed. Colonel Richard Stephens received Kells in 1654 and sold his interest to Thomas Taylor, a surveyor who had come to Ireland with William Petty. Taylor's descendants became major landowners in the district, while the tower and crosses continued to mark the much older sacred site.