Annaghdown
On the eastern shore of Lough Corrib, at the end of the road from Corrandulla, a bay, a pier, a ruined abbey and a ruined cathedral share the name Annaghdown. St Brendan is said to have been given the land here by a king of Connacht, and the annals name Ciarán of Annaghdown around the year 800. But the name is best known from a poem: Antoine Ó Raifteirí's lament for the twenty people drowned when a rotten boat sank on its way to Galway on 4 September 1828.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
Abbey, Annaghdown Castle, Headford Castle on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
The marsh of the fort
Eanach Dhúin is the marsh of the dún, the fort, probably the marshland attached to the stronghold of the chieftain of Maigh Seola, granted for a church. Annaghdown does not appear in the annals until the twelfth century; the Annals of Inisfallen record the anchorite Aed dying here in 1044, a bishop O'Flaherty dying in 1241 and the monastery burning in 1411. The Arroasian abbey, St Mary de Portu Patrum, was probably founded by Turlough O'Conor around 1140 and dissolved in 1562. What stands is a church, a cloister and living quarters with thirteenth-century windows and a south choir window of about 1200; the cathedral, 110 metres to the south-east, has an east window of the same period so well fitted that Peter Harbison doubts it was moved.
Eanach Dhúin
On Thursday 4 September 1828 an old, leaky rowing boat, the Caisleán Nua, left Annaghdown early with about thirty-one people and sheep aboard for the eight miles down the lake to Galway. A sheep put its foot through the floor and the boat sank at Menlo; about twenty drowned. Ó Raifteirí's lament made the tragedy famous, and in 1978 the Annaghdown Anglers Club set a memorial stone at the pier for the 150th anniversary. Dick Farrelly, who wrote the Isle of Innisfree for The Quiet Man, also wrote a song called Annaghdown.
The parish now
The civil parish takes in Corrandulla, Cloonboo and the Annaghdown settlement, with four primary schools. Annaghdown GAA plays at Cregg on the road from Cloonboo to Claregalway, Corrib Celtic is the soccer club beside the national school, where a refurbished handball alley now has an active club, and Corrib RFC is at Headford. The model on this page pins the abbey and castle with the road to Headford.
Questions people ask
What happened at Annaghdown in 1828?
Who founded Annaghdown Abbey?
Where is Annaghdown?
Written from Wikipedia, "Annaghdown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.