diff --git a/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc b/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
index c373ed27f..588fe33ba 100644
--- a/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
@@ -389,21 +389,33 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::cleanupPostOutputsRegisteredModeNonCheck()
 #if __linux__
 static void doBind(const Path & source, const Path & target, bool optional = false) {
     debug("bind mounting '%1%' to '%2%'", source, target);
-    struct stat st;
-    if (stat(source.c_str(), &st) == -1) {
-        if (optional && errno == ENOENT)
+
+    auto bindMount = [&]() {
+        if (mount(source.c_str(), target.c_str(), "", MS_BIND | MS_REC, 0) == -1)
+            throw SysError("bind mount from '%1%' to '%2%' failed", source, target);
+    };
+
+    auto maybeSt = maybeLstat(source);
+    if (!maybeSt) {
+        if (optional)
             return;
         else
             throw SysError("getting attributes of path '%1%'", source);
     }
-    if (S_ISDIR(st.st_mode))
+    auto st = *maybeSt;
+
+    if (S_ISDIR(st.st_mode)) {
         createDirs(target);
-    else {
+        bindMount();
+    } else if (S_ISLNK(st.st_mode)) {
+        // Symlinks can (apparently) not be bind-mounted, so just copy it
+        createDirs(dirOf(target));
+        copyFile(source, target, /* andDelete */ false);
+    } else {
         createDirs(dirOf(target));
         writeFile(target, "");
+        bindMount();
     }
-    if (mount(source.c_str(), target.c_str(), "", MS_BIND | MS_REC, 0) == -1)
-        throw SysError("bind mount from '%1%' to '%2%' failed", source, target);
 };
 #endif
 
diff --git a/tests/functional/linux-sandbox.sh b/tests/functional/linux-sandbox.sh
index ff7d257bd..04209277b 100644
--- a/tests/functional/linux-sandbox.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/linux-sandbox.sh
@@ -73,3 +73,6 @@ testCert missing fixed-output "$nocert"
 
 # Cert in sandbox when ssl-cert-file is set to an existing file
 testCert present fixed-output "$cert"
+
+# Symlinks should be added in the sandbox directly and not followed
+nix-sandbox-build symlink-derivation.nix
diff --git a/tests/functional/symlink-derivation.nix b/tests/functional/symlink-derivation.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..17ba37424
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/functional/symlink-derivation.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+with import ./config.nix;
+
+let
+  foo_in_store = builtins.toFile "foo" "foo";
+  foo_symlink = mkDerivation {
+    name = "foo-symlink";
+    buildCommand = ''
+      ln -s ${foo_in_store} $out
+    '';
+  };
+  symlink_to_not_in_store = mkDerivation {
+    name = "symlink-to-not-in-store";
+    buildCommand = ''
+      ln -s ${builtins.toString ./.} $out
+    '';
+  };
+in
+mkDerivation {
+  name = "depends-on-symlink";
+  buildCommand = ''
+    (
+      set -x
+
+      # `foo_symlink` should be a symlink pointing to `foo_in_store`
+      [[ -L ${foo_symlink} ]]
+      [[ $(readlink ${foo_symlink}) == ${foo_in_store} ]]
+
+      # `symlink_to_not_in_store` should be a symlink pointing to `./.`, which
+      # is not available in the sandbox
+      [[ -L ${symlink_to_not_in_store} ]]
+      [[ $(readlink ${symlink_to_not_in_store}) == ${builtins.toString ./.} ]]
+      (! ls ${symlink_to_not_in_store}/)
+    )
+    echo "Success!" > $out
+  '';
+}