Food
Doherty's Craft Butcher
An award-winning family craft butcher on Cannon Street, supplier of the sausages and puddings on Kells breakfast tables.
Known for: Sausages and black and white pudding
Plan Your Visit
Everything you need to know before you head out: weather, what to pack, the best seasons, and useful links.
Looking for a day plan?
Half-day highlights, full-day explorer, rainy day plan, and weekend escape: all mapped out step by step.
Weather & What to Bring
Weather
Kells sits inland in north Meath on rising ground above the River Blackwater, a tributary of the Boyne, and it gets the mild, damp lowland weather of the Irish midlands rather than the coast's wind. Rain is frequent and light more often than heavy, summers are cool and changeable, and still winter mornings bring frost and fog to the river valley below the town. The Hill of Lloyd, a couple of kilometres west, is exposed and noticeably windier than the streets.
Packing Checklist
- ✓Waterproof jacket (essential year-round)
- ✓Layers: temperature can change quickly
- ✓Comfortable walking shoes
- ✓Camera: the views are worth it
- ✓Sunscreen: yes, even in Ireland
Bring Something Home
Local producers, markets, and makers worth a stop before you leave Kells.
Food
Martry Mill
A family-run working watermill on the Blackwater about 7 km from Kells, grinding stoneground wholemeal flour since 1859. Tours by arrangement and summer baking days.
Known for: Stoneground wholemeal flour
Food
Sheridans Cheesemongers Meath Shop and Café
Sheridans' Meath cheese shop and café in the old forge at Virginia Road Station, Carnaross, about 10 km from Kells.
Known for: Irish farmhouse cheese
Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 11:00-17:00
Best Time to Visit
Spring
March - May
Quiet months in town. The Spire of Lloyd tours are a summer-season Friday programme, so check whether they have restarted before planning around them.
Spring is when Kells is most itself: no festival, no coach traffic, and the churchyard to yourself on a weekday morning. It is the season to do the town properly on foot, starting at the Courthouse on Headfort Place, which opens six days a week, and asking there about a visit to St Colmcille's House, which needs a day's notice. The Courthouse closes on Sundays, so a Sunday visit gets you the churchyard and the crosses and not much more. Girley Bog, about 7 km out on the Mullingar road, is at its best from late spring, when the warblers the Discover Boyne Valley guide lists, willow warbler, chiffchaff and blackcap, are back in the scrub at the edge of the bog. Check the Spire of Lloyd before you go up: the Friday tours of the inside run in the summer season only, and the tourist office publishes when they restart.
Summer
June - August
The town's busiest stretch. Hinterland, the literature and arts festival, takes the last full weekend of June, and the Spire of Lloyd runs its Friday tours.
Summer brings the town's two best reasons to time a visit. Hinterland, the festival of literature and arts run out of the Book Market café on Market Street, takes over the town for four days at the end of June, with talks, readings and music in venues across Kells; the 2027 dates, 24 to 27 June, are already announced. On Fridays in the summer season the tourist office runs three tours of the Spire of Lloyd, at 12, 1.30 and 2.30, climbing the 164 steps of the inland lighthouse to a view the Courthouse says reaches the Mournes on a clear day. The volunteer Walk-About Tours of the town are free and booked through the Courthouse. Headfort Golf Club takes visitor tee times online for its two courses. Book dinner at the Vanilla Pod ahead on a Friday or Saturday.
Autumn
September - November
Kells has made early November its own with the Samhain Festival of Food and Culture, based at Eureka House, and the new Printing Works runs Friday-morning tours from November into December.
Autumn is food season in Kells. The Samhain Festival of Food and Culture, run by the Centre of Food Culture Ireland from Eureka House on the Navan Road, filled the first weekend of November 2026 with the Sheridans Irish Food Fair, tastings, workshops for children and a Long Table Supper, and it sits inside the Boyne Valley's wider Halloween programme. From the second week of November the Kells Printing Works on Church Lane runs a one-hour guided tour every Friday at 10am into the middle of December, booked online at €8 for adults; it is the newest thing in the town and the presses are worth the hour. The churchyard and the crosses are at their best in low October sun.
Winter
December - February
Short days and no outdoor tours at the Spire of Lloyd. The indoor town, the Courthouse, the Printing Works tours to mid December and the hotel fires, carries a winter visit.
Winter Kells is an indoor town with a good churchyard. The Spire of Lloyd tours stop for the winter, though the People's Park and the hill stay open for a walk. The Courthouse on Headfort Place keeps its weekday and Saturday hours and is the warm place to see the Book of Kells facsimile and the replica of the Kells Crozier, and the Printing Works Friday tours run until 18 December 2026. St Colmcille's House can still be opened with a day's notice; it is unlit and small, so go in daylight. Evenings go to the Headfort Arms, where Café Therese runs from breakfast until ten at night and the Kelltic Bar has its open fire and live music from Thursday to Sunday. It is dark before five in December, so do the churchyard first.