diff --git a/sstables/sstables.cc b/sstables/sstables.cc
index 902233e820..3cde38c1e7 100644
--- a/sstables/sstables.cc
+++ b/sstables/sstables.cc
@@ -1808,22 +1808,6 @@ sstable::component_type sstable::component_from_sstring(sstring &s) {
     return reverse_map(s, _component_map);
 }
 
-// NOTE: Prefer using data_stream() if you know the byte position at which the
-// read will stop. Knowing the end allows data_stream() to use a large a read-
-// ahead buffer before reaching the end, but not over-read at the end, so
-// data_stream() is more efficient than data_stream_at().
-input_stream<char> sstable::data_stream_at(uint64_t pos, uint64_t buf_size, const io_priority_class& pc) {
-    file_input_stream_options options;
-    options.buffer_size = buf_size;
-    options.io_priority_class = pc;
-    if (_compression) {
-        return make_compressed_file_input_stream(_data_file, &_compression,
-                pos, _compression.data_len - pos, std::move(options));
-    } else {
-        return make_file_input_stream(_data_file, pos, std::move(options));
-    }
-}
-
 input_stream<char> sstable::data_stream(uint64_t pos, size_t len, const io_priority_class& pc) {
     file_input_stream_options options;
     options.buffer_size = sstable_buffer_size;
diff --git a/sstables/sstables.hh b/sstables/sstables.hh
index 325f0bbbb8..7cef991c0e 100644
--- a/sstables/sstables.hh
+++ b/sstables/sstables.hh
@@ -422,8 +422,6 @@ private:
 
     future<index_list> read_indexes(uint64_t summary_idx, const io_priority_class& pc);
 
-    input_stream<char> data_stream_at(uint64_t pos, uint64_t buf_size, const io_priority_class& pc);
-
     // Return an input_stream which reads exactly the specified byte range
     // from the data file (after uncompression, if the file is compressed).
     // Unlike data_read() below, this method does not read the entire byte