diff --git a/modules/prelude-common-lisp.el b/modules/prelude-common-lisp.el
index 718a9e5111..9b982e6648 100644
--- a/modules/prelude-common-lisp.el
+++ b/modules/prelude-common-lisp.el
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@
         (sbcl ("sbcl" "--noinform") :coding-system utf-8-unix)))
 
 ;; select the default value from slime-lisp-implementations
-(if (eq system-type 'darwin)
+(if (and (eq system-type 'darwin)
+         (executable-find "ccl"))
     ;; default to Clozure CL on OS X
     (setq slime-default-lisp 'ccl)
   ;; default to SBCL on Linux and Windows