What is recorded here

Half a mile from Castle Emo, a small square graveyard vanished between map editions, leaving no stones, markers or grass outline behind. The 1841 survey still called it Skeaghnakilla, a name that may point to a thorn bush beside a holy or burial place, but later cartographers dropped it as though the field had never held the dead. Whatever hands dug those graves, the land took them back so completely that even memory seems to have walked away.

'Skeaghnakilla Graveyard' marked on the 1841 edition of the OS 6-inch map, as a small almost square area along a field fence, is not indicated on later map editions No visible surface remains. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.