Annaghdown is a historic monastic settlement near the east shore of Lough Corrib. Its name comes from the Irish Eanach Dhúin that means "The marsh of the fort". In the area many road signs simply say Eanach Dhúin, and this might be a little misleading.
It is said that the monastery was founded by St. Brendan of Clonfert in the 6th century on a land that was granted to him by Áed mac Echach, King of Connacht. Brendan died here in Annaghdown in 577, but he was buried at Clonfert Cathedral.
The monastic site includes four important buildings. A church, a nunnery, a cathedral and a priory.
The building furthest north is the Abbey of St. John the Baptist de Cella Parva, that was founded in 1223 as a house of Premonstratensian Canons by Murtagh O'Flaherty, bishop of Annaghdown, and became an abbey 13 years later. The abbey and monastery were dissolved in 1542.
Not much survives today of this building, which is a little more than outlined on the ground, with only a few sections of walls. Namely there are the northeast corner of the chancel, the west part of the north wall of the nave with its pointed arch doorway and two windows, and a short segment of the south wall of the nave. In the centre of the nave a rectangular cairn of loose stones from the structure have been tidily arranged.
The church is aligned to the east-northeast (75°).
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