Kilkeel (Cill Chaoil in Irish) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. The important fishing port contains a ruined church and a fort dating from the fourteenth century. A much newer attraction is the Nautilus Centre. The town is also known as the location where William Hare died.
The harbour at Kilkeel bustles with the province's largest fleet, and is busiest during landings and at auction time when fish, including herring, are sold on the quay. There are fish-processing factories around the port, pleasure angling off the piers and miles of lobster pots along the coast. The town has winding streets, terraced shops and houses with stepped pavements, and a bend in the middle round the ruins of the Old Church, a 15th Century church with a 16th Century predecessor from which the town took its name - cill caol ('church at the narrows').
- See also: List of towns in Northern Ireland
