Lough Corrib
Oughterard calls itself the gateway to Connemara, but it is the lake that made it. Lough Corrib covers 176 square kilometres, the largest lake in the Republic and second on the island only to Lough Neagh, running from the edge of Galway city to the Mayo border at Cong. Its name is a worn-down form of Loch Oirbsean, after Oirbsen, another name for the sea god Manannán mac Lir.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
JoachimKohler-HB, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Lough Corrib - Loch Coirib, Inchagoill Monastic Site, Aughnanure Castle, Annaghkeen Castle on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
The Friar's Cut and the islands
The first canal in Ireland was dug here in the twelfth century: the Friar's Cut let boats pass from the lake to the sea at Galway. The lake is said to have 365 islands; the surveyor who has been charting it since 2007 counts 1,327. The largest wooded one, Inchagoill, lies midway between Cong and Oughterard with two early churches, beaches and woodland walks and views of the Maumturks and Joyce Country. The Annals of Inisfallen record that in 1027 Muiredach Ua Flaithbertaig besieged Cathal son of Ruaidrí on Inis Crema in Loch Oirbsen.
What the charts found
The survey turned up objects that the Underwater Archaeology Unit of the National Monuments Service has since examined: Bronze Age and Iron Age dugout canoes, the Annaghkeen Boat, forty feet long and intricately carved, the Carrowmoreknock Boat, a well-preserved tenth-century vessel carrying three Viking battle axes, and the wreck of a Victorian pleasure yacht.
Two basins, one water supply
The lake has a small shallow southern basin and a large deep northern one joined by a narrow channel; limestone bedrock under marl floors the south and east, with pasture around and bog to the west and north. Otters, mink, stoats, bats and hawks live on it, and it is a Ramsar site since June 1996 and a Special Area of Conservation. In March 2007 Cryptosporidium in the lake water put Galway city, Moycullen, Oughterard and Headford on a boil notice, and it took new treatment plants to end it; the invasive curly-leaved waterweed and the zebra mussel are the present threats. William Wilde, Oscar's father, built Moytura House on the shore and published Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands in 1867.
Questions people ask
How big is Lough Corrib?
How many islands are on Lough Corrib?
What was found on the bed of Lough Corrib?
Written from Wikipedia, "Lough Corrib" (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.