The village and parish of Ardboe sit on the west shore of Lough Neagh. The name, Ard Bó, is taken to mean the height of the cow, and Wikipedia says it comes from a legend that the monastery there was built from the milk of a magic cow which came out of Lough Neagh. A heritage tour writer retells it as a cow that emerged when the lough had dried and whose strength passed to the builders and the building.
The monastery is said to have been founded by St Colman around 590. Of it only the high cross survives, a sandstone cross about 18 feet tall carved with some twenty-two panels of Bible scenes and dated to the ninth or tenth century.
The lough itself keeps a wider stock of stories. Local people have traditionally credited its waters with healing powers, and tour writers say the shore is long linked to fairies. The story of the cow is one of a family of Irish legends about a bountiful cow, in which the animal usually departs if abused.
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