The medieval account explains the lake's name. Echaid, in Wikipedia's summary, fell in love with his stepmother Ebliu and fled with his retainers, helped by a magic horse from the god Oengus. When the horse stopped in Ulster a spring rose from the ground. Echaid built a house and covered the spring with a capstone, but one night the cap was not replaced and the water overflowed, drowning Echaid and most of his family and creating Loch nEchach, Eochaid's lake.
The tale is told in the text Aided Echach maic Maireda, the death of Eochaid son of Mairid, preserved in the twelfth-century manuscript Lebor na hUidre. Lough Neagh is also named as one of the twelve chief loughs of Ireland in Cath Maige Tuired. The folk tradition of the covered well that must not be left open is a widespread pattern in Irish tales about drowned lands.
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