Location – Located immediately south of the King’s River about 400m east of Kells town on the L1023.
OS: S49804 43287
Longitude: -7.2666235
Latitude: 52.538949
Description and History – Kells Priory has long been on my list of places to visit. From the photographs I had seen it looked unique and different, and it did not disappoint. It has to be one of the largest monasteries in Ireland and it definitely requires time to manoeuvre around. There is some confusion as to the exact date of the Priory’s foundation by Geoffrey fitz Robert with dates ranging between 1183 and 1193. Geoffrey fitz Robert was granted the land for the Priory in 1192 by William Marshal making a later date more likely (Empey 2007). It is likely that the confusion arises from another church having been founded on the site in 1183 dedicated to St. Kieran, which itself was founded on the site of another earlier church. Fitz Robert was granted 40,000 acres of land and, in turn, granted 1700 acres to the new Priory, the church of which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Fitz Henry brought Augustinian canons from Bodmin Priory in Cornwall to begin the Priory. One of these, Hugh de Rous, became the first Ango-Norman bishop of Ossory in 1202. The Priory, along with the town was burned by William de Bermingham in 1252 and was much devastated in the early 14th century during the Bruce invasion of 1317 and when it was sacked by the Fitzgeralds in 1327. A mere 20 years later the Black Death would rapidly spread across Europe and Ireland further weakening the Priory’s position, although it would later regain importance in the 15th century as the Priory became key to the town’s defence. The Priory fell out of use following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 and the last prior was Nicholas Tobin. It was later granted to the Earl of Ormond and later to Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond in 1603.
While the remaining structures are huge, they are poorly preserved. The main body of the church consists of the nave and chancel church, with a crossing tower, and an aisle on the north side, with an aisle in the north transept. The original portions of the church were finished no later than 1218. The aisle is likely to not be from the first phase of building and added to in the mid to late 13th century. Unusually the bell tower is not incorporated into the crossing tower, but is located at the west end of the nave instead. A Lady Chapel was added to the north of the cloister and is accessed from both the chancel and the north transept. The south transept is truncated and leads into the inner parlour or possibly a sacristy. From there is the chapter house on the east side, followed by the calefactory. Above this range of buildings would have been the dormitory. On the south east corner is the necessarium and the priory workshop. The south side range contains a series of store rooms and the refectory above along with the lavatorium. The west range again contains store rooms and an outer parlour. There appears to be no accommodation for lay brother unless this range has been misinterpreted. Most of the claustral buildings date to the second quarter of the 13th century. Beyond the south range is an unusually shaped courtyard leading to the infirmary range of buildings. On the west end of this courtyard were the kitchens, slightly apart from the refectory. Lastly at the far west end of the monastic precinct is a bake house or a brew house.
Slightly later in date the outer precinct, or ‘villa prioris’, was added with a series of impressive towers connected with large walls which served as residential towers. Also known as Burgess Court, it was constructed between 1460 and 1475. The area it covers was used for protection of tenants and cattle. A road ran through the middle of this which can still be partially seen, and a millstream ran along the north side of this area dividing it, along with a wall, from the monastic precinct. More explanations of the various buildings will be given in the captions for the photographs below.
This is a complex and important site that requires time to navigate and really take in. I think this is a place I will need to return to as it was only after visiting when preparing for this blog post that I really began to get a handle on what I was looking at.
Difficulty – There is a carpark and gated entrance leading in and it is fairly easy to navigate and is on a local walking loop meaning it is well visited.
Date of Visit – 11th October, 2025.
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