Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny

Kells Priory, on the banks of the King’s River in Kilkenny, is one of the most remarkable medieval monuments in Ireland. The monastery was founded for Augustinian Canons by Geoffrey fitz Robert in 1193. Fitz Robert originally hailed from Wiltshire in England, and was a retainer of William Marshal, one of the most powerful men in England and Wales. Marshal had inherited the Lordship of Leinster in 1189, and one of the first men he rewarded was his loyal friend Geoffrey fitz Robert by granting him the lands around Kells. Around 1192 FitzRobert established an entirely new town at Kells, complete with castle, streets, houses, a marketplace and a mill. As part of this new town, he also donated a site to the Augustinian Canons to build a church and a large estate to create a farm. Today, little survives of the medieval town at Kells, but there are extensive remains of the Augustinian priory that FitzRobert helped establish. Approaching it today, with its walls and castellated towers, the monastery looks more like a fortified settlement than a religious house. The main priory precinct is located beside the river and contains the church and the domestic ranges around a square cloister, as well as the fine residential tower of the prior. In the 15th century the precinct was strengthened by adding a large outer enclosure and a number of towers that were leased to the priory tenants. This effectively became a gated and walled town attached to the priory, which has become known as the Burgesses Court. Here, within the large courtyard, the tenants who lived in the towers held parcels of land where they could keep their animals under the protection of the defensive walls. The Priory was closed in 1540 and the buildings gradually fell into disuse, but standing amongst the ruins today you can still get a strong sense of what it was like to live behind the walls of a monastery and town during medieval times.