Kells is a
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
near
Ballymena
Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...
in
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. The village of Connor lies close by, and the two are often spoken of collectively. Kells and Connor had a population of 2,053 people (808 households) in the 2011 Census.
The villages are in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Connor.
A Christian settlement in Connor was established in 480 AD and a monastery in Kells in 500 AD. The church at Connor became a cathedral in the 12th century, and there is still a
Bishop of Connor in the Church of Ireland and a
Bishop of Down and Connor
The Bishop of Down and Connor () is an episcopal title which takes its name from the town of Downpatrick (located in County Down) and the village of Connor (located in County Antrim) in Northern Ireland. The title is still used by the Catholic C ...
in the Roman Catholic Church, though neither has his seat here.
Toponymy
Kells' name comes from the plural of the Irish word ''cill'', meaning "church" or "monastic cell",
while Connor's name means "oakwood of the wild dogs", from the Irish ''con doire''.
History
There is much evidence, from written sources and archaeological material, that Connor was a sizeable, complex settlement in the Early Christian period, probably with monastic and secular elements coexisting. The church of the early monastic establishment at Connor was rebuilt as the cathedral of the medieval
Diocese of Connor. It was destroyed in the Confederate wars of the mid seventeenth century and replaced by the present Church of St Saviour early in the nineteenth century, the foundation stone for the church being laid in 1811 and the building consecrated in 1813. During the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, an
Augustinian community was established at Kells nearby. This Augustinian Abbey survived into the early seventeenth century but was burnt in 1641. Only one wall and some short runs of wall remain of the Abbey and these are now preserved in the grounds of Dinsmore's textile factory.
Connor was the site of a significant battle between the invading army of
Edward Bruce and the
Earl of Ulster on 9 September 1315. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Normans by the Scots army, Connor was sacked.
Kells and Connor was the location where the
1859 Ulster revival started.
Transport
Kells was formerly served by the
Ballymena and Larne Railway, a
narrow gauge railway
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
.
Kells railway station opened on 24 August 1878, closed for passenger traffic on 31 January 1933 and finally closed altogether on 3 June 1940.
See also
*
List of villages in Northern Ireland
This is an alphabetical list of towns and villages in Northern Ireland. For a list sorted by population, see the list of settlements in Northern Ireland by population. The towns of Armagh, Lisburn and Newry are also classed as cities (see city st ...
References
{{authority control
Villages in County Antrim