diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libyaml/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libyaml/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5d56b6bcdcd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libyaml/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "libyaml";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = http://pyyaml.org/download/libyaml/yaml-0.1.3.tar.gz;
+    sha256 = "a8bbad7e5250b3735126b7e3bd9f6fce9db19d6be7cc13abad17a24b59ec144a";
+  };
+
+  meta = {
+    homepage = http://pyyaml.org/;
+    description = "A YAML 1.1 parser and emitter written in C";
+    license = "free";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index ffee4517c52f..bb96102f821e 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -4231,6 +4231,10 @@ let
     inherit fetchurl stdenv;
   });
 
+  libyaml = import ../development/libraries/libyaml {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv;
+  };
+
   libzip = import ../development/libraries/libzip {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv zlib;
   };
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 25a62b932274..ca6ce2af42f4 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -409,6 +409,24 @@ rec {
     };
   });
 
+  pyyaml = buildPythonPackage (rec {
+    name = "PyYAML-3.09";
+
+    src = fetchurl {
+      url = "http://pyyaml.org/download/pyyaml/PyYAML-3.09.zip";
+      sha256 = "204aca8b42dbe90e460794d743dd16182011da85507bfd4f092f9f76e0688040";
+    };
+
+    buildInputs = [ pkgs.unzip pkgs.pyrex ];
+    propagatedBuildInputs = [ pkgs.libyaml ];
+
+    meta = {
+      description = "The next generation YAML parser and emitter for Python";
+      homepage = http://pyyaml.org;
+      license = "free"; # !?
+    };
+  });
+
   setuptoolsDarcs = buildPythonPackage {
     name = "setuptools-darcs-1.2.8";