Moygownagh

Moygownagh (Gaelic - Magh Gamhnach) is a rural village and parish in North Mayo. Situated between the towns of Ballycastle and Crossmolina, it has a population of 585. The parish derives its name from an ancient 7th century legend where a wandering St. Cormac met St. Daria, the abbess of a monastery along the banks of the Owenmore river. She treated him so hospitably that he blessed her and her lands so that they would abound in milch cows (fertile cows with milk) thereafter the area became known as "the plain of the milch cows" or "Magh Gamhnach".