Page 129 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

IRELAND  127

The Book of Kells Where to See Early
Christian Sites in
The most richly decorated of all
the Irish illuminated manuscripts Ireland
dating from the 8th–10th Important early Christian
centuries, the Book of Kells sites besides Glendalough
contains the four gospels in include Clonmacnoise, the
Latin, copied onto leaves of Rock of Cashel (see p128),
high-quality vellum. It is Ahenny, Clonfert, Kells, and
remarkable both for the beauty Devenish Island. Though
of the script and for the inspired most of the monastic
fantasy of the illumination. There buildings are ruins, many
is no record of its existence have continued to be used
before the early 11th century, as cemeteries right up to
but it was probably created in modern times. Monasteries
about 800. It would have taken were built on the Aran
many years of work by the Page of the Genealogy of Christ from Islands (see p131) and even
scriptorium of a monastery. It the Book of Kells on the remote rocky Skellig
may have been brought to Kells Michael, off the Kerry Coast.
by monks from Iona who fled to Round towers and High
Ireland after a Viking raid in 806. The manuscript was moved to Crosses are preserved all over
Trinity College (see p118) in the 17th century for safe-keeping. Ireland, often standing
beside churches of much
more recent construction.
Gatehouse
Guesthouse Monks’
and stable
dwellings
and barns

Clonmacnoise was
founded in the 6th century.
The monastery was noted
for its piety and scholarship.
Now it is an atmospheric
collection of ruins in a
remote spot on the
Shannon. This carved
Romanesque doorway is
The cathedral was the part of the Nun’s Church.
largest of the many The Crozier of the Abbots
churches built in and of Clonmacnoise dates
around the monastery. from the 11th century. The
incised patterns on
the ornate silver
casing show the strong
influence of Viking designs.

The Voyage of St. Brendan is a Devenish Island has a fine
fantastic legend of early-medieval restored round tower and
Irish Christianity. The 6th-century enjoys a peaceful setting on
saint and his followers set sail into Lower Lough Erne. Lake
the Atlantic in a small boat, sighting islands were popular as
volcanic islands, ice floes, whales, monastic sites.
and even, some say, America.

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