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There are some roads the names of which are familiar to people around the globe, such as the Appian Way in Italy, the Silk Road in China, the Stuart Highway in Australia, the Burma Road of World War 2 fame, route 66 in the U.S.A., or the trans American Highway reaching from the tip of South America to Alaska. But the road that had the greatest impact on the people of the Annaghdown/Corrandulla area when it was built was the Curraghline.
Before it existed the means of getting to Galway City was by boat on the lake or by road through Claregalway. The Curragh Line is the stretch of road from Corrandulla Barracks to Carrowbrowne, a distance of approximately 6 miles. By any standard it was a major undertaking, given the difficult terrain it had to traverse from black alluvial clay in some places some fifty or more feet in depth to peat over white marl in others. Other places were a complete quagmire not to mention the added complication of two rivers and a number of streams and drains.

Below is the information board erected in 2021 at Corrandulla Cemetery. Our thanks to the Society members involved in this project, and to Declan Greaney for providing the plan of the cemetery. The full-scale survey can be downloaded at the

A seldom discussed aspect of Irish history is the number of Irishmen who served in the British forces, a number which exploded in the nineteenth century reaching two in five of all British soldiers. Irishmen are understandably slow to acknowledge their participation in an empire won partly, and policed largely, by their countrymen.
This short study focuses on the one hundred men from Annaghdown who served in British forces prior to the twentieth century, and it is important to note that this study includes only those who survived to discharge. The total number of men from Annaghdown was therefore considerably more, several times more indeed, in an era of war and particularly poor conditions for servicemen.
Nationally, close to three quarters of Irish soldiers were from rural areas and, in general, the men enlisted ‘for life’ (i.e. unlimited service) or, into the nineteenth century, for twenty-one years. The men were more often illiterate, well over half in the case of Annaghdown, with them making ‘their mark’ on attestation and discharge. This was an impediment to their promotion.

This is a transcription of a document entitled ‘A Copy of the Annadown Applotments – 1847’, presented to the Annaghdown Heritage Society in February 1996 by the Devaney family of Cregduff, Corrandulla. According to the prefacing summary page, it was applotted in spring 1847 by Thomas Browne, who lived in Cregduff.
It is unclear why the document was produced. A comparison with the later Griffith’s Valuation shows that the acreage given for each townland is consistent between the two. This suggests that Browne’s applotment was based on a published source – possibly the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map, produced in 1838. It is also possible that Browne came into contact with those carrying out the official valuation during the 1840s.

The stone walls and ruins of east Galway are famous all over the world. They record the graft and skill of former generations who knew from the feel and heft of a stone precisely how to place it in a wall that would withstand generations of wind, rain, ivy, livestock and farm machinery.
Annaghdown has some of the most beautiful walls and ruins in Ireland, and they are an important part of our history and heritage. Previous generations, who cleared the land and drew out the fields and laneways of Annaghdown with simple stone walls, have left us a remarkable legacy. Though we are in awe of the world’s great monuments like Newgrange and Stonehenge, the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, the largest and most significant monument on the face of the earth is the mosaic of farms and farmland that stretches right across the globe: agriculture has literally changed the surface of the planet and is testimony to what can be achieved by even the smallest of communities.

In 1812 the Commissioners for Enquiring into the Nature of the Bogs of Ireland published detailed maps of the Bogs, along with reports of how useful they might be for reclaiming for agricultural use. The map of the Cloonboo area shows the bogs and also the roads and houses in the area. Whether the houses are shown in their correct locations is not clear.
A map made by the Ordnance Survey in 1839 shows the houses and roads in their exact locations, with the road in the same orientation as on the bog map.
The N84 Headford Galway Road was not yet in existence, not being built until 1870. The road through the village from north to south was the boreen that goes through Greaney’s bus yard.