diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fd800f939887c7fd5c84c6dc76db2218a5307f74..b8d979fe309bd5092dc251af0f52ddf034c011bd 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ option(DD4HEP_USE_LCIO    "Build lcio extensions"    OFF)
 option(BUILD_TESTING      "Enable and build tests"   ON)
 option(DD4HEP_USE_CXX11   "Build DD4hep using c++11" OFF)
 option(DD4HEP_USE_CXX14   "Build DD4hep using c++14" OFF)
+option(CMAKE_MACOSX_RPATH "Build with rpath on macos" ON)
+ 
 #
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
@@ -134,6 +136,7 @@ ENDIF()
 # ----for APPLE scripts have to set the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH 
 if( APPLE ) 
   set( USE_DYLD 1)
+  set(CMAKE_MACOSX_RPATH 1)
 endif()
 
 configure_file(cmake/thisdd4hep.csh bin/thisdd4hep.csh @ONLY)