The distinctive Grace mausoleum that dominates a graveyard to the immediate south of the Roman Catholic church in the village of Arles, County Laois. Descendants of a knight who came to Ireland with Strongbow in the 12th century, the Graces lived nearby in a house called Gracefield. Taking the form of a miniature Gothic chapel (it measures 21 feet in length and 16 feet in breadth, with the pinnacles rising 31 feet), the mausoleum was erected in 1818 on the instructions of Alicia Kavanagh (née Grace), widow of Morgan Kavanagh. It replaced an earlier tomb of her family on the same site and from that structure were salvaged a series of 18th century commemorative tablets: these are embedded around the exterior walls of the mausoleum.  A carved panel over the door features the date of the building’s construction and the Grace coat of arms.