diff --git a/src/ng/location.js b/src/ng/location.js
index 0a47445f6f87..d193b1ca667e 100644
--- a/src/ng/location.js
+++ b/src/ng/location.js
@@ -184,6 +184,10 @@ function LocationHashbangUrl(appBase, hashPrefix) {
 
     this.$$compose();
 
+    if (!this.$$path) {
+      this.$$path = '/';
+    }
+
     /*
      * In Windows, on an anchor node on documents loaded from
      * the filesystem, the browser will return a pathname
diff --git a/test/ng/locationSpec.js b/test/ng/locationSpec.js
index ff823d306efd..b66f689b725a 100644
--- a/test/ng/locationSpec.js
+++ b/test/ng/locationSpec.js
@@ -1487,6 +1487,16 @@ describe('$location', function() {
       expect(location.url()).toBe('/not-starting-with-slash');
       expect(location.absUrl()).toBe('http://server/pre/index.html#/not-starting-with-slash');
     });
+
+
+    it("should return / for path for the application root path", function() {
+      location = new LocationHashbangUrl('http://server/pre/index.html', '#');
+      location.$$parse('http://server/pre/index.html');
+      expect(location.path()).toBe('/');
+
+      location.$$parse('http://server/pre/');
+      expect(location.path()).toBe('/');
+    });
   });