Kells, County Meath, Ireland.

Kells is a town in County Meath, Ireland. The town lies off the M3 motorway, 16 km from Navan and 65 km from Dublin. Along with other towns in County Meath, it is within the "commuter belt" for Dublin and had a population of 6,135 as of the 2016 census.
The heritage town of Kells contains many fine examples of early medieval Christian architecture.
Kells derives from the Irish Ceanannas Mór, meaning ‘great residence`. Long before the coming of Christianity, Kells was a royal residence associated with the legendary Conn Céadchatach (Conn of the Hundred Battles) and Cormac mac Airt. In 550 St. Columba, also known as St. Colmcille, established a religious settlement at Kells. In 563 he went into self-imposed exile on the Isle of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, and founded another settlement. The island was raided by Viking fleets in 795, 802, and again in 804 when sixty-eight people were killed. Shortly after, the community of St. Columba`s monastery on Iona was granted lands at Kells as a safe haven from invaders.
Generally, monastic settlements were surrounded by a circular boundary wall called a vallum, which acted as a frontier between the holy world within and the secular world outside. They often contained a church, graveyard, high crosses, and monk`s cells, and from the late 10th century round towers also became a feature.