Lough Conn is a lake in County Mayo

County Mayo

County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...

 in the province

Provinces of Ireland

Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...

 of Connacht

Connacht

Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...

 in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and covers about 14,000 acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s (57 km²). With its immediate neighbour to the south, Lough Cullin

Lough Cullin

Lough Cullin is a lake in County Mayo in Ireland. With its immediate neighbour to the north, Lough Conn, it is connected to the Atlantic by the River Moy. Lough Cullin is noted for its trout and salmon fishing....

, it is connected to the Atlantic by the River Moy

River Moy

The River Moy rises at the foot of Knocknashee in the Northwest of Ireland.- Geography :The River Moy rises at the foot of Knocknashee in the Ox Mountains in County Sligo. It flows for 110 km...

. Lough Conn is noted for its trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

 and salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

 fishing.

The ruins of an abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 exist at Errew

Errew

Errew is a small rural settlement, 8km from the county town of Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. The history of Errew follows the Franciscan monastery which was established in 1879 as a boys school which closed in 1975, the church in the monastery remained open until 1981 There are 22 Brothers...

.

Name

In Gaelic

Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...

 mythology

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

, various accounts are given of the origin of the name.

In one account, Lough Conn was created when Fionn mac Cumhaill

Fionn mac Cumhaill

Fionn mac Cumhaill , known in English as Finn McCool, was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man...

 was hunting with his hound

Hound

A hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. It can be contrasted with the gun dog, which assists hunters by identifying the location of prey, and with the retriever, which recovers shot quarry...

s; Conn and Cullin. They came across a wild boar

Boar

Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...

. Finn and the hounds attempted to chase it. However, as the boar ran, water poured from its feet. The hounds ran ahead of Finn and evenally Conn was ahead of Cullin. Conn chased the boar for days until a lake appeared. The boar swam back to land but Conn was drowned. This happened again in the south to Cullin.

According to another account, the name means in Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 “the lake of the hounds”. The story is that the fierce hounds of the chieftain Modh pursued a wild pig into the lake, where they drowned.

Location

The lake is connected to Lough Cullin by a channel that passes under the R310

R310 road

The R310 road is a regional road in County Mayo, Ireland. South to north the route connects the town of Castlebar to Ballina. En route it crosses over a strait linking Lough Conn and Lough Cullin at Pontoon, part of River Moy outflow....

 regional road

Regional road

A regional road in Ireland is a class of road not forming a major route , but nevertheless forming a link in the national route network. There are over 11,600 kilometres of regional roads. Regional roads are numbered with three digit route numbers, prefixed by "R" A regional road in Ireland is a...

 at Pontoon

Pontoon, County Mayo

Pontoon is a lakeside village on the R310 regional road in County Mayo in Ireland, situated between Lough Conn and Lough Cullin, and near the town of Foxford. The area is scenic and there are several hotels in the area to service the tourist industry....

. The River Deel flows into Lough Conn and exits Lough Cullin at its southern end near Foxford

Foxford

Foxford, historically called Bellasa , is a small village 16 km south of Ballina in County Mayo, Ireland. The village stands on the N26 national primary route from Swinford to Ballina and has a railway station served by trains between Dublin and Ballina.Situated between the Nephin and Ox...

, joining the River Moy which discharges into the Atlantic at Killala Bay

Killala Bay

Killala Bay is a bay on the west coast of Ireland between County Mayo and County Sligo. It is situated between Lenadoon Point and Downpatrick Head and is the estuary for the River Moy....

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