placenames1901 census
209People recorded
36Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
- Cupples 15
- Francey 13
- Parker 13
- McNeely 12
- Thompson 12
Kells
Na Cealla
Archaeological work distinguishes the surviving medieval church from an earlier monastic tradition.
Recorded locationKells54.80613° N · 6.22943° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ie
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Na Cealla · Irish · main form
- Kells · English · main form
Place & story
The surviving church
Philip Macdonald’s 2010 report identifies Templemoyle’s ruined late medieval church as the surviving building of Kells’s Augustinian abbey. It notes that an earlier monastic foundation is generally accepted, while also stressing the absence of early documentary evidence or excavation evidence establishing an Early Christian centre. The later abbey remains are firmer evidence than a precise early foundation date. [2]
A watching brief at Church Road
Ten connected foundation trenches behind 17 Church Road revealed modern yard-levelling deposits and buried soils. No deposits or finds of archaeological significance were observed. Macdonald qualifies that negative result because a watching brief has methodological limitations; it does not demonstrate that the wider Kells monastic site never existed. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Townland
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Antrim Lower
- Civil parish
- Connor
- Coordinates
- 54.80613, -6.22943
- Mapped area
- 1.92 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1165661 ↗
People & family history
Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.
1911 census
61People recorded
15Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
- Nimmon 10
- Boyd 8
- Cupples 7
- Carlisle 5
- Elwood 5
1926 census
This year is outside the available dataset’s coverage. This does not indicate a population of zero.
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kells. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- 2010:037 — Kells, Antrim, licenceAE/10/169 · Philip Macdonald, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University Belfast; published by Wordwell
- Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-06-27. How this page was prepared.