diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyproj/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyproj/default.nix
index eff6f4368583..8b15c63fb206 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyproj/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyproj/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 { lib
 , buildPythonPackage
 , fetchPypi
-, proj
 , python
+, nose2
+, proj ? null
 }:
 
-buildPythonPackage rec {
+buildPythonPackage (rec {
   pname = "pyproj";
   version = "1.9.5.1";
   name = "${pname}-${version}";
@@ -15,14 +16,19 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "53fa54c8fa8a1dfcd6af4bf09ce1aae5d4d949da63b90570ac5ec849efaf3ea8";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ proj ];
+  buildInputs = [ nose2 ];
 
-  # Could not get tests working
-  doCheck = false;
+  checkPhase = ''
+    runHook preCheck
+    pushd unittest  # changing directory should ensure we're importing the global pyproj
+    ${python.interpreter} test.py && ${python.interpreter} -c "import doctest, pyproj, sys; sys.exit(doctest.testmod(pyproj)[0])"
+    popd
+    runHook postCheck
+  '';
 
   meta = {
     description = "Python interface to PROJ.4 library";
     homepage = http://github.com/jswhit/pyproj;
     license = with lib.licenses; [ isc ];
   };
-}
+} // (if proj == null then {} else { PROJ_DIR = proj; }))
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 5c86376a2441..96b5db7ee047 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -19894,7 +19894,11 @@ in {
 
   pyopencl = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pyopencl { };
 
-  pyproj = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pyproj { };
+  pyproj = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pyproj {
+    # pyproj does *work* if you want to use a system supplied proj, but with the current version(s) the tests fail by
+    # a few decimal places, so caveat emptor.
+    proj = null;
+  };
 
   pyrr = buildPythonPackage rec {
     name = "pyrr-${version}";