Kilkenny City And County - Guide and Directory - Bassetts, 1885

Kells

Excellent Trout Fishing.

There is probably no place in the county that has so fallen from its proud estate. Kells is now a village of small proportions and insignificant importance. A few of the chief residents take a melancholy pleasure in recalling a saying which has been handed down from father to son for generations - "Kells was, Kilkenny is, and Callan wil be, the greatest city of the three." During the past twenty years many of the worst of the dwellings have been thrown down, and there has been a reduction of population, but, taking everything into consideration, the opinion is that the village is more prosperous than it has been at any period within forty years.

A majority of the residents are farm labourers, to whom it is of the utmost consequence that the hands of the district are excellent for pasture and tillage. In the immediate vicinity of the village there are rich grazing fields, which rent at £3 15s per acre. Further out the loam [soil] is particularly well adapted to wheat raising, and is largely and profitably used for this purpose. The land-owners are - Viscount Mountgarrett, Mr. Thomas Martin, and Mrs. Lucy.

The former greatness of Kells has been a drag rather than a help to its progress. To have it spoken of always as "a place that was," might do very well if the inhabitants were in the pay of the Government, and had no other occupation than that of caretakers of the ruins and foundations of castles and churches. But Kells has its few men and women who are keenly alive to what is going on in the business world, and it would be better for them if their houses stood upon a site without historical associations.

Kells is situated upon the King's River, four miles from Callan, six miles from Kilkenny, and five miles from Thomastown. The Nore is about three miles away. It has already been stated that excellent trout fishing can be had at Kells. The King's river at this point runs at such limits as to make it particularly tempting to the angler. The walks at every side of the village lead to points from which a fine view of the surrounding country may be obtained. The handsomest private residences in the outskirts are those of General Baldock, Newtown Shea, and Colonel Izod, Chapelizod.

Kells has one fair day in each year, the 13th of July, and when it falls on a Sunday, as it does this year, it is held on the following Monday. It is one of the oldest fairs in the country, and, if properly advertised, would have continued to be a very good fair. In this respect, Kells, County Meath, is so frequently referred to in the almanacs, that it quite throws it into the shade. Something might be done, in the way of advertising, with the fowl market also. It is held at certain times during the winter months, but no particular days are fixed. Indeed, it is a sort of haphazard market, and is ruled by conditions of a purely local nature.

The ruins of churches and castles occupy so much ground that the intelligent stranger, without the help of a guide-book, has no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that it must have been at one time a place of great consequence. Kells was originally built by Geoffrey Fitzrobert, a follower of Richard, Earl Strongbow, and was used as a garrison of defence against the clans of the adjoining County of Tipperary. The strength of the army in the County of Kilkenny was concentrated here for that purpose. Being only six miles from Kilkenny, assistance was easily lent to the latter city when required. The Tipperary clans usually made their raids from the direction of Mullinahone. In order to check their advance, and give notice to the army at Kells, there were fortified outposts along the river beyond Callan.

In 1183 a priory was founded at Kells by Geoffrey Fitzrobert, and occupied by monks brought from Bodmin, in Cornwall. The population increased rapidly under his protecting influence, and received at his hands many charters. In 1211 he died without issue. The estates passed to his nephew, who contrived to so much involve himself that in 1242 the De Berminghams secured possession of them. William De Bermingham, in a contest with the St. Aubans, 1252-1253, burned the town to the ground. It was partly rebuilt some time afterward , and the elder Bruce occupied it for a short period in 1316. The De Berminghams burned it again in 1327. In the fourteenth century the town was granted, with its belongings, to the Poers, by whom an effort was made to restore it to something of its former character. The Prior was a Lord of Parliament, and the Priory of Tulleash, County Cork, was also under his authority.

At the dissolution, in the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VIII., the monastery was granted to the Earl of Ormonde. Of the "seven castles of Kells," two have fallen. The late Rev. C. Darby, a Protestant clergyman, took a deep interest in the historical remains of the town, and was successful in the work of restoration.

Comerford's old song of Kells Abbey, in the way in which I give it, is still hummed by some of the inhabitants:

If the tourist comes from Instioge and Thomastown, an opportunity will be afforded him of seeing the round tower of Kilree. It is almost one hundred feet in height, and four feet from the ground is fifty feet in circumference. The conical cap is absent. Not far from it is a cross eight feet high. it consists of one block of freestone, and is ornamented with orbicular rings. According to tradition, this monument was raised to the memory of Niall Callan, King of Ireland, to whom I have already referred as having been drowned at Callan while endeavouring to rescue one of his followers. In the vicinity of the round tower are the ruins of an abbey, believed to be the same which was dedicated to St. Gobban. Almost every mile of the road from Thomastown to Kells brings the tourist into view of something of an attractive nature. The scenery at both sides of the way is agreeably diversified, the mute reminders of past greatness being surrounded by evidences of modern civilization and cultivated taste.