St Columba's Church

St Columba's Church (HMHK4)

Location: Tucson, Meath 85701 Meath
Country: Ireland
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N 53° 43.647', W 6° 52.72'

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Inscription

Kells Heritage Trail

Diarmuld MacCarroll, High King of Tara, is said to have granted the dun of Cenannus to St Columcille in the 6th century for the purpose of establishing a monastery. This may explain why in 804 the Columban community on the island of Iona (Hebrides), then the principal Columban monastery, moved to Kells to escape the reaches of Norse raiding parties. St Columba's church stands on the site of the original Columban monastery. It became a cathedral church 1152 when the diocese of Kells was established, and a parish church in 1211 when dioceses of Kells and Meath amalgamated. The church houses a facsimile of the Book of Kells and an exhibition on the history of the site.

Hugh Brady, Anglican Bishop of Meath, rebuilt the church including the present bell tower in 1578. An inscription on the tower commemorates this event. Another inscription of the same date is found on the west side of the tower.

In 1655 the church, in a state of ruins, was used by Cromwell's army as a horse barracks. The present church was built in 1778 by Thomas Taylor, First Earl of Bective, at a cost of ?2,121. He also added the entrance gates and the spire to the bell tower in 1783. Both church and spire were designed by Thomas Cooley, who also designed Dublin's City Hall. The stone mason was John Walsh.

Four of the high crosses of Kells, the South Cross, the West or Broken Cross, the East or Unfinished Cross, and the North Cross are located on the grounds of St Columba's Church.

Details

HM Number	HMHK4
Tags	Cemeteries and Burials, Churches and Religion, Landmarks, Man Made Features, Buildings, People, English Civil War
Placed By	Meath Tourism
Marker Condition	No reports yet
Date Added	Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 at 10:16pm PDT -07:00

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Locationbig map

UTM (WGS84 Datum)	29U E 639949 N 5955287
Decimal Degrees	53.72745000, -6.87866667
Degrees and Decimal Minutes	N 53° 43.647', W 6° 52.72'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds	53° 43' 38.82" N, 6° 52' 43.20" W
Driving Directions	Google Maps
Area Code(s)	520
Closest Postal Address	At or near 4 Church Street, Tucson Meath 85701, IE
Alternative Maps	Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap