The history of Cleggan
St Ceannanach, Colman's island, the pier of 1822, the disaster of 1927. 5 moments, in order.
- Legend
St Ceannanach's head
The saint is said to have been beheaded by a pagan chief, who carried the head to the well at Clooncree, washed it and lay down to die; the name itself means the head, for the headland.
- 665
St Colman on Inishbofin
The monastery was founded on the island; a roofless thirteenth-century chapel in the graveyard is thought to mark it. A Cromwellian fort, once a prison for priests, guards the harbour mouth, and Gráinne O'Malley's castle is there too.
- 1800s
The watchtower
The ruin on Cleggan Head was built in the Napoleonic wars.
- 1822 and 1908
Nimmo's pier
Built by Alexander Nimmo and extended in 1908, it is the focal point of the village.
- 1927
The Cleggan Bay disaster
A gale rose without warning while the boats were at the mackerel; 25 local men drowned, sixteen of them from Rossadilisk, which was abandoned. Nine more from Inishbofin and twenty from Mayo were lost. Money came from Britain, America and Australia, and the night lives in Richard Murphy's poem of 1963, Marie Feeney's book, a TG4 documentary and a song.
Where this comes from
Every paragraph above summarises a statement in Wikipedia, "Cleggan", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, as it read on 2026-09-19. Follow it for the footnotes. Nothing has been added from memory.