Sir, – I wish to defend our heritage town against the gloomy portrayal of its facilities by Prof Stalley in his letter of September 5th. As he is obviously not familiar with the present excellent facilities now available in the town, I wish to take this opportunity to correct some of those he referred to.
For tourists coming from Dublin by car, the new M3 motorway to Kells is now only 35 minutes from Blanchardstown. On arrival there are five car parks and on-street parking is available within the town centre. Trinity has no such parking arrangements. As regards “heralding the stone sculpture on the approach roads”, in deference to the status of the other monuments, this obviously would not be practicable. Hence, the familiar “Heritage Town” signs that cover the multitude of delights to be explored.
As regards Trinity providing information on how to get to Kells by public transport, I am taking the liberty of posting a quantity of Bus Éireann timetables to the shop in Trinity’s Book of Kells centre. These cover the daily departure times of buses to Kells from Busáras. It is hoped the shop staff will do the needful to those seeking such details.
On arrival by bus in Kells, visitors only have to cross the road from the bus stop to the tourist information office in the foyer of the new town hall.
With the help of a local map, they are then ably assisted to the sites of interest, including St Colmcille’s House, by the new signposts, wall plaques and free-standing information panels. Within the Church of Ireland walls, you only have to glance around the graveyard to spot the three towering high crosses. As regards the Tower Cross, I do agree the branches need to be trimmed back.
The professor may be interested to know that the fourth cross, the Termon Cross of Kells, is to be reinstated to its historic site, which is mentioned in the annals as “the cross at the gate of the entrance”.
We hope this can be arranged by 2014, which is the 1,200th anniversary of the completion of the monastic city.
There are also proposals afoot to have one of the four sections of the Book of Kells, which contains some of the charters on Kells, displayed with “The Book of Kells Experience Exhibition” in the Heritage Centre, also by 2014. – Yours, etc,