diff --git a/README.TXT b/README.TXT
index e909f5a65..2e09789bb 100644
--- a/README.TXT
+++ b/README.TXT
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ installing dependencies and running make should suffice. Make sure the following
 dependencies are installed:
 
  - Boost		1.41+
- - sparsehash   1.4+
  - g++			4.2+
  - libxml2		2.7+
  - scons 		2.10+
diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index 0440fa32b..a87733504 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -101,9 +101,6 @@ if not conf.CheckLibWithHeader('z', 'zlib.h', 'CXX'):
 if not conf.CheckCXXHeader('stxxl.h'):
 	print "Could not locate stxxl header. Exiting"
 	Exit(-1)
-if not conf.CheckCXXHeader('google/sparse_hash_map'):
-	print "Could not find Google Sparsehash library. Exiting"
-	Exit(-1)
 if not conf.CheckCXXHeader('boost/asio.hpp'):
 	print "boost/asio.hpp not found. Exiting"
 	Exit(-1)