The secret of Kells

The Book of Kells may have been a Scottish-Irish co-production or even an entirely Scots production. Academic opinion believes it was created by the scriptorium of Iona, a monastery founded around 561 by Saint Colum Cille on Iona, an island off Mull in western Scotland.

Following a Viking raid on the island in 806 that left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, Co Meath.

The Book of Kells is believed to have been written in or around the year 800. Was it produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location? Alanna Gallagher