diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/julia/0.5.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/julia/0.5.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..04ef7b86c48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/julia/0.5.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchgit, fetchurl
+# build tools
+, gfortran, m4, makeWrapper, patchelf, perl, which, python2
+, runCommand
+# libjulia dependencies
+, libunwind, readline, utf8proc, zlib
+, llvm, libffi, ncurses
+# standard library dependencies
+, curl, fftwSinglePrec, fftw, gmp, libgit2, mpfr, openlibm, openspecfun, pcre2
+# linear algebra
+, openblas, arpack, suitesparse
+# Darwin frameworks
+, CoreServices, ApplicationServices
+}:
+
+with stdenv.lib;
+
+# All dependencies must use the same OpenBLAS.
+let
+  arpack_ = arpack;
+  suitesparse_ = suitesparse;
+in
+let
+  arpack = arpack_.override { inherit openblas; };
+  suitesparse = suitesparse_.override { inherit openblas; };
+in
+
+let
+  dsfmtVersion = "2.2.3";
+  dsfmt = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/SFMT/dSFMT-src-${dsfmtVersion}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "03kaqbjbi6viz0n33dk5jlf6ayxqlsq4804n7kwkndiga9s4hd42";
+  };
+
+  libuvVersion = "8d5131b6c1595920dd30644cd1435b4f344b46c8";
+  libuv = fetchurl {
+    url = "https://api.github.com/repos/JuliaLang/libuv/tarball/${libuvVersion}";
+    sha256 = "1886r04igcs0k24sbb61wn10f8ki35c39jsnc5djv3rg4hvn9l49";
+  };
+
+  rmathVersion = "0.1";
+  rmath-julia = fetchurl {
+    url = "https://api.github.com/repos/JuliaLang/Rmath-julia/tarball/v${rmathVersion}";
+    sha256 = "0ai5dhjc43zcvangz123ryxmlbm51s21rg13bllwyn98w67arhb4";
+  };
+  
+  virtualenvVersion = "15.0.0";
+  virtualenv = fetchurl {
+    url = "mirror://pypi/v/virtualenv/virtualenv-${virtualenvVersion}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "06fw4liazpx5vf3am45q2pdiwrv0id7ckv7n6zmpml29x6vkzmkh";
+  };
+in
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  pname = "julia";
+  version = "0.5.0";
+  name = "${pname}-${version}";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "https://github.com/JuliaLang/${pname}/releases/download/v${version}/${name}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "0bhickil88lalp9jdj1kmf4is70zinhx8ha9rng0g3z50r4a2qmv";
+  };
+  prePatch = ''
+    mkdir deps/srccache
+    cp "${dsfmt}" "./deps/srccache/dsfmt-${dsfmtVersion}.tar.gz"
+    cp "${rmath-julia}" "./deps/srccache/Rmath-julia-${rmathVersion}.tar.gz"
+    cp "${libuv}" "./deps/srccache/libuv-${libuvVersion}.tar.gz"
+    cp "${virtualenv}" "./deps/srccache/virtualenv-${virtualenvVersion}.tar.gz"
+  '';
+
+  patches = [
+    ./0001.1-use-system-utf8proc.patch
+    ./0002-use-system-suitesparse.patch
+  ];
+
+  postPatch = ''
+    patchShebangs . contrib
+    for i in backtrace replutil cmdlineargs compile; do
+      mv test/$i.jl{,.off}
+      touch test/$i.jl
+    done
+  '';
+
+  buildInputs = [
+    arpack fftw fftwSinglePrec gmp libgit2 libunwind mpfr
+    pcre2.dev openblas openlibm openspecfun readline suitesparse utf8proc
+    zlib llvm
+  ]
+  ++ stdenv.lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [CoreServices ApplicationServices]
+  ;
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ curl gfortran m4 makeWrapper patchelf perl python2 which ];
+
+  makeFlags =
+    let
+      arch = head (splitString "-" stdenv.system);
+      march = { "x86_64" = "x86-64"; "i686" = "pentium4"; }."${arch}"
+              or (throw "unsupported architecture: ${arch}");
+      # Julia requires Pentium 4 (SSE2) or better
+      cpuTarget = { "x86_64" = "x86-64"; "i686" = "pentium4"; }."${arch}"
+                  or (throw "unsupported architecture: ${arch}");
+    in [
+      "ARCH=${arch}"
+      "MARCH=${march}"
+      "JULIA_CPU_TARGET=${cpuTarget}"
+      "PREFIX=$(out)"
+      "prefix=$(out)"
+      "SHELL=${stdenv.shell}"
+
+      "USE_SYSTEM_BLAS=1"
+      "USE_BLAS64=${if openblas.blas64 then "1" else "0"}"
+      "LIBBLAS=-lopenblas"
+      "LIBBLASNAME=libopenblas"
+
+      "USE_SYSTEM_LAPACK=1"
+      "LIBLAPACK=-lopenblas"
+      "LIBLAPACKNAME=libopenblas"
+
+      "USE_SYSTEM_SUITESPARSE=1"
+      "SUITESPARSE_LIB=-lsuitesparse"
+      "SUITESPARSE_INC=-I${suitesparse}/include"
+
+      "USE_SYSTEM_ARPACK=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_FFTW=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_GMP=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_LIBGIT2=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_LIBUNWIND=1"
+      
+      "USE_SYSTEM_LLVM=1"
+      "LLVM_VER=3.8.1"
+
+      "USE_SYSTEM_MPFR=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_OPENLIBM=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_OPENSPECFUN=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_PATCHELF=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_PCRE=1"
+      "PCRE_CONFIG=${pcre2.dev}/bin/pcre2-config"
+      "PCRE_INCL_PATH=${pcre2.dev}/include/pcre2.h"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_READLINE=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_UTF8PROC=1"
+      "USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB=1"
+    ];
+
+  NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = [ "-fPIC" ];
+
+  LD_LIBRARY_PATH = makeLibraryPath [
+    arpack fftw fftwSinglePrec gmp libgit2 mpfr openblas openlibm
+    openspecfun pcre2 suitesparse llvm
+  ];
+
+  dontStrip = true;
+  dontPatchELF = true;
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  doCheck = true;
+  checkTarget = "testall";
+  # Julia's tests require read/write access to $HOME
+  preCheck = ''
+    export HOME="$NIX_BUILD_TOP"
+    set
+  '';
+
+  preBuild = ''
+    sed -e '/^install:/s@[^ ]*/doc/[^ ]*@@' -i Makefile
+    sed -e '/[$](DESTDIR)[$](docdir)/d' -i Makefile
+  '';
+
+  postInstall = ''
+    for prog in "$out/bin/julia" "$out/bin/julia-debug"; do
+        wrapProgram "$prog" \
+            --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : "$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$out/lib/julia" \
+            --prefix PATH : "${stdenv.lib.makeBinPath [ curl ]}"
+    done
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "High-level performance-oriented dynamical language for technical computing";
+    homepage = "http://julialang.org/";
+    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.mit;
+    maintainers = with stdenv.lib.maintainers; [ raskin ];
+    platforms = [ "i686-linux" "x86_64-linux" "x86_64-darwin" ];
+    broken = stdenv.isi686;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 06ec3496941..7bec1275dbd 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -5051,6 +5051,13 @@ in
     llvm = llvm_37;
   };
 
+  julia_05 = callPackage ../development/compilers/julia/0.5.nix {
+    gmp = gmp6;
+    openblas = openblasCompat;
+    inherit (darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) CoreServices ApplicationServices;
+    llvm = llvm_38;
+  };
+
   julia-git = lowPrio (callPackage ../development/compilers/julia/git.nix {
     gmp = gmp6;
     openblas = openblasCompat;