the callow, landing-place of the pigs

The word caladh frequently signifies “landing-place”, “port” or “harbour”. In this townland situated along the banks of Lough Corrib, there is indeed a Landing Place marked on Ordnance Survey maps dating back to the early 20th century. The staff of the Survey collected information on the origin of this placename in the 1830s:

people who wanted to bring pigs to Headfort market were ferried across here (Descriptive Remarks; Ordnance Survey Parish Namebooks)

A similiar explanation is provided in the Schools’ Folklore Collection from the 1930s:

An fáth gur baisteadh an t-ainm seo ar an áit:- Fadó beathuightí a lán muc annseo. Cuirtí go Gaillimh iad i mbádaibh ó'n gcaladh-phort thíos. Tugadh an t-ainm "Caladh na Muc" ar an gcaladhphort ar dtús agus leis an am tugadh an t-ainm ar an t-sráid-bhaile ar fad. [The reason this name was given to the place: Long ago many pigs were reared here. They were brought to Galway in boats from the harbour below. The name “Caladh na Muc” was given to the harbour first and over time the name was given to the whole village] (0065, 002).

All of the above would seem to suggest that “the landing-place of the pigs” is the likely meaning of Caladh na Muc. That being said, caladh can often signify “callow”; “river-meadow” (i.e., low-lying land next to a waterway) in placenames. This meaning is evident in the placename Calaí na Sionainne/River Shannon Callows and in an historical reference to Loch Uí Ghadhra/Lough Gara in The Annals of the Four Masters under the year 1393 (iv 726.14) 'i ccaladh locha techet' ('at the callow of Lough Techet', DIL). In this respect it is worth noting that areas of this townland are marked as being flooded in the first addition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps; cf. Liable to Floods on the shore of the lake on 20th century maps. It may be the case, therefore, that Caladh na Muc originally carried the meaning “the river-meadow of the pigs” but that the name was later reinterpreted as “the landing-place of the pigs”. (JÓG)