Annaghdown (, ) is a civil parish in County Galway, Ireland. It takes its name from Eanach Dhúin, Irish for "the marsh of the fort". It lies around Annaghdown Bay, an inlet of Lough Corrib. Villages in the civil parish include Corrandulla and Currandrum. Annaghdown is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam and the Church of Ireland Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry. Etymology According to the Early Ecclesiastical Settlement Names of County Galway (1996): "The name Eanach Dhúin signifies the 'marsh of the Dún or fort.' The word Dún is one of the most common elements denoting secular settlement in early placenames. It usually refers to an enclosed settlement or ringfort and in the early historical period it appears to designate the principal dwelling of the local king or chieftain. The placename ... probably referred to the marshlands attached to the fort of the chieftain of Maigh Seola, which would have been granted as a site for a church." History Little is known of the early history of Annaghdown, which does not appear in the annals until the twelfth century. Two historical sources state it was granted to St. Brendan of Clonfert by King Áed mac Echach of Connacht. Francis Byrne believed that as Áed's territory of Uí Bhriúin Aoi lay in County Roscommon, it was not within his power to grant the land of another chieftain so distant from him. However, as noted by Hubert Knox, the dynasty may have actually originated in this region, which would explain this donation. The earliest reliable reference to Annaghdown occurs in Comainmniguid Noem nErenn, composed c. 800, which contains a reference to Ciarán Enaigh Dúin, (Ciarán of Annaghdown). This, together with placename evidence indicates an association with Ciarán of Clonmacnoise as opposed to Brendan of Clonfert. The connection with Clonfert may have been no more than a reflection of an attempt by Clonfert to justify its claim on the church of Annaghdown at a later period. During the twelfth century the monastery of St Mary for Augustinian canons was built c. 1140. Following this the new diocese of Annaghdown was established by the Ó Flaithbheartaigh kingdom of Iar Connacht about 1179 from the lands of their kingdom and separated from the Diocese of Tuam, controlled by their rival Ó Conchubhair dynasty. The Archbishop of Tuam at the turn of the fourteenth-century, William de Bermingham, claimed Ruadhri