Dublin | Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is a must-see on the itinerary of all visitors to Dublin. Located in the heart of the city centre in Trinity College Dublin,the Book of Kells is a 9th century manuscript that documents the four Gospels of the life of Jesus Christ. The Book of Kells is Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure and the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. It had always been assumed that the work – which includes 150 square feet of spectacular coloured illustrations – was conceived and created as one book, containing all four Gospels.

But a detailed analysis of the texts has led a leading expert on early medieval illuminated manuscripts, Dr Bernard Meehan of Trinity College, Dublin, to conclude that the book was originally two separate works that were, in the main, created up to half a century apart. Dr Meehan's new hypothesis suggests that the last part of the Book of Kells (namely St John’s Gospel) and the first few pages of St Mark’s Gospel were created by a potentially quite elderly scribe on the Scottish island of Iona sometime during the last quarter of the eighth century.

But he believes the rest of St Mark’s Gospel and the Kells copies of the Gospels of St Luke and St Matthew were created up to 50 years later in Ireland – in Kells itself.