What is recorded here

Lea Castle and the old churchyard in County Laois still stand beside low fields where a medieval town disappeared. It was not a clean vanish: earthworks, field edges and local memory keep returning the place to sight. The O'Connors burned it, the castle fell into waste, and a great ash tree marked the loss long after the streets ceased to be named. What remains is a region of ghosts made visible, where human life keeps reappearing through the land itself.

Historical document dated 1577 describes the 'castle, towne and lands of Desert al' Disert…… (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, p. 97). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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