Kells! The Abbey.

After this long teasing of our trip towards Kells, you must be expecting a grandiose ending to the series. So let me disappoint you right now: unfortunately, the second day of our cycling trip was a lot less nice in terms of the weather. We had a beautiful morning, but by the time we got to Kells it started raining intermittently, and each shower was longer and stronger than the former. So unfortunately we only had time for a visit of the main graveyard, we did not see the other, even older one. And even the Abbey had to be rushed a bit towards the end, as it was raining so hard I had trouble keeping my lens dry. And I could feel Cédric's impatience mounting as I kept taking pictures and he was sheltered under a tree, drinking tea from the flask to keep warm. The good news is: I reckon I have enough pictures for two posts! Today will be an overview of the graveyard wit quick focus on a couple of the more recent graves, and we will delve into more ancient stuff next time.

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The obvious first thing we saw, which allowed us to locate the Abbey instantly, was the round tower. But the entrance being locked, we had to go around the graveyard to look for another way. We ended up facing the House of Saint Columcille, who founded many monasteries across Ireland, including Kells. It was closed due to Covid restrictions, and we were not able to come any closer, but it looks incredibly well-preserved (for a 10th century building!), and I was highly impressed by its stone roof as well. Unable to access, we kept moving and finally found the entrance to the graveyard at the bottom of that street (phew, by then I was afraid it might be closed for restrictions, too).

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Our exploration of the graveyard came with a few surprises. First, on entering, we realised the church at its centre was not all that ancient. I was sort of naively expecting the medieval Abbey to still be standing, although I was aware it would probably have been restored and updated. But except for the tower, there is no trace left of the medieval building. The current church was apparently built in the late 18th century. Second surprise: the graves around the church in that area of the graveyard were actually quite recent. As we moved to the back of the church, we

started spotting older graves, as well as a beautiful, flowery view of the tower (I love these huge wild fuchsia bushes that are everywhere in this country). And then came a third surprise: that part of the graveyard was quite unkempt, with countless broken headstones, and dead branches stacked in several spots. With Kells drawing so many history-oriented tourists, I was expecting this to be the most pristine graveyard in the country. I guess the stacked branches might have been the result of lock-down, with people possibly having had to leave their work unfinished. But the state of some of the stones suggests that part of the the graveyard was probably not looked after at all for a number of years, which is surprising in such an important historical and touristic place.

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Among the first graves we saw on entering, the Armstrong plot was particularly interesting. It is quite large, and was visibly extended to the front (see broader view below), but mostly it looks very uniform and quite recent. The central piece stands out as it is taller, a different shape, and glaringly white. I have no idea when the stone was originally cut, but it is either a lot more recent than its shape suggests, or extremely well-kept (probably a bit of both). It is probably the "original" stone (by that I mean it commemorates the first family members to be remembered), as it is the only stone of the plot to list the names of people who died in the 19th century. And the others died in the 20th century (as late as 1979), but had all been born by the end of the 19th. The other stones of this plot all look exactly the

same, and the people buried there all died in the 20th, or the early 21st century. What caught my eye, though, are the two non-inscribed slates, ready for the lists to be continued. I don't know whether this is a very large family, or they have a contractual obligation to get buried in Kells, but clearly there is no intention of breaking the generational line. Also, I wrote earlier that the plot was visibly extended, but on second thoughts there might be two plots for two branches of the same family. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense for one slate of the "additional" slot to be full (and include a number of people who were born in the late 19th century), while the "original" plot includes people who died recently and has one empty slab. Finally, I'm pretty impressed at the ages all these people reached before they died. Except for one person who died in her 30s and another who died aged 48, everyone seems to have lived over 70 years old. At first I thought they might have been poor in the past and this could explain how recent the the headstones look, but it's unlikely that poor people (in a poor country) would live that long. So I guess they are simply actively maintaining the whole plot.

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Among the graves of the Armstrong family, there is one reverend, and he was not the only one to be buried in the graveyard at Kells Abbey. I saw a number of those, including two former rectors of Kells Union of Parishes; Aidan Olden (rector 1960-1992, died 2000) and the "Venerable John Healy", Rector of Kells in the late 19th Century. Aidan Olden was also a Canon of Saint Patrick's Cathedral and of Meath. He is buried here with his wife, and both of them were in their 80s when they died.

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That's all I have to share about the first part of Kells Abbey graveyard. It got more and more fascinating as I explored the part at the back of the church, with a few rather original designs that forced me to linger in spite of the rain. That's for the next post!