diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/default.nix
index 51f0b7ed45aa..3c292deabc61 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/default.nix
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   makeFlags = [ "ENABLE_PROTOBUF=1" "PREFIX=${placeholder "out"}"];
 
   patchPhase = ''
+    patch -p1 < ${./plugin-search-dirs.patch}
     substituteInPlace ./Makefile \
       --replace 'CXX = clang' "" \
       --replace 'LD = clang++' 'LD = $(CXX)' \
@@ -96,6 +97,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   postBuild   = "ln -sfv ${abc-verifier}/bin/abc ./yosys-abc";
   postInstall = "ln -sfv ${abc-verifier}/bin/abc $out/bin/yosys-abc";
 
+  setupHook = ./setup-hook.sh;
+
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "Open RTL synthesis framework and tools";
     homepage    = "http://www.clifford.at/yosys/";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/plugin-search-dirs.patch b/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/plugin-search-dirs.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0cb0aee9c7ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/plugin-search-dirs.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+diff --git a/passes/cmds/plugin.cc b/passes/cmds/plugin.cc
+index 3ed19497..f9534bd0 100644
+--- a/passes/cmds/plugin.cc
++++ b/passes/cmds/plugin.cc
+@@ -75,8 +75,27 @@ void load_plugin(std::string filename, std::vector<std::string> aliases)
+ 		#endif
+ 
+ 		void *hdl = dlopen(filename.c_str(), RTLD_LAZY|RTLD_LOCAL);
+-		if (hdl == NULL && orig_filename.find('/') == std::string::npos)
+-			hdl = dlopen((proc_share_dirname() + "plugins/" + orig_filename + ".so").c_str(), RTLD_LAZY|RTLD_LOCAL);
++		if (hdl == NULL && orig_filename.find('/') == std::string::npos) {
++			std::string install_dir = proc_share_dirname() + "plugins";
++
++			vector<string> all_dirs;
++			all_dirs.push_back(install_dir);
++
++			char* plugin_dirs = getenv("NIX_YOSYS_PLUGIN_DIRS");
++			if (plugin_dirs != NULL) {
++				std::string p(plugin_dirs), t;
++				std::stringstream ss(p);
++
++				while(std::getline(ss, t, ':')) {
++					all_dirs.push_back(t);
++				}
++			}
++
++			for (auto dir : all_dirs) {
++				hdl = dlopen((dir + "/" + orig_filename + ".so").c_str(), RTLD_LAZY|RTLD_LOCAL);
++				if (hdl != NULL) break;
++			}
++		}
+ 		if (hdl == NULL)
+ 			log_cmd_error("Can't load module `%s': %s\n", filename.c_str(), dlerror());
+ 		loaded_plugins[orig_filename] = hdl;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/setup-hook.sh b/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/setup-hook.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d01bbdd1a8c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/yosys/setup-hook.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+addYosysPluginPath() {
+  addToSearchPath NIX_YOSYS_PLUGIN_DIRS "$1/share/yosys/plugins"
+}
+
+addEnvHooks "$targetOffset" addYosysPluginPath