- Abbeyleix Demesne, Co. Laois, Laois

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Laois Site name: Abbeyleix Demesne, Co. Laois

Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR LA023-036003 Licence number:

Author:

Site type: Graves of indeterminate date

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 643798m, N 684978m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.913860, -7.348800

In December 1987 human remains were discovered in the kitchen garden of Abbeyleix House, in the townland of Abbeyleix Demesne, Co. Laois.143 The remains were found at a depth of c. 0.6m in light sandy loam and consisted of portions of a human and a horse skeleton. The remains were found close to the old church and graveyard, which, according to the landowner, Viscount de Vesci, dated from before 1750 and occupy the site of a pre-Reformation church. The bones were examined by Vincent Butler; the human bone was found to comprise two fragments of femur and one fragment of tibia, while the horse remains consisted of fragments of skull, vertebrae, humerus, radius, pelvis and femur. These bones were returned to be reburied at Abbeyleix.

143. Parish of Abbeyleix, barony of Cullenagh. SMR LA023-036003—; exact location not marked.