diff --git a/IkiWiki.pm b/IkiWiki.pm
index ec8b32a63..c2c2337b4 100644
--- a/IkiWiki.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki.pm
@@ -157,13 +157,6 @@ sub getsetup () {
 		safe => 0, # path
 		rebuild => 1,
 	},
-	templatedirs => {
-		type => "internal",
-		default => [],
-		description => "additional directories containing template files",
-		safe => 0,
-		rebuild => 0,
-	},
 	underlaydir => {
 		type => "string",
 		default => "$installdir/share/ikiwiki/basewiki",
@@ -1661,7 +1654,7 @@ sub saveindex () {
 sub template_file ($) {
 	my $template=shift;
 
-	foreach my $dir ($config{templatedir}, @{$config{templatedirs}},
+	foreach my $dir ($config{templatedir},
 	                 "$installdir/share/ikiwiki/templates") {
 		return "$dir/$template" if -e "$dir/$template";
 	}
diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/underlay.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/underlay.pm
index 116fe7324..3ea19c635 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/underlay.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/underlay.pm
@@ -27,14 +27,6 @@ sub getsetup () {
 			safe => 0,
 			rebuild => 1,
 		},
-		add_templates => {
-			type => "string",
-			example => ["$ENV{HOME}/.ikiwiki/templates"],
-			description => "extra template directories to add",
-			advanced => 1,
-			safe => 0,
-			rebuild => 1,
-		},
 }
 
 sub checkconfig () {
@@ -43,9 +35,6 @@ sub checkconfig () {
 			add_underlay($dir);
 		}
 	}
-	if ($config{add_templates}) {
-		push @{$config{templatedirs}}, @{$config{add_templates}};
-	}
 }
 
 1;
diff --git a/doc/plugins/underlay.mdwn b/doc/plugins/underlay.mdwn
index 8836a394c..0cf819472 100644
--- a/doc/plugins/underlay.mdwn
+++ b/doc/plugins/underlay.mdwn
@@ -12,9 +12,3 @@ revision control, like photos or software releases.
 Directories in `add_underlays` should usually be absolute. If relative,
 they're interpreted as relative to the parent directory of the basewiki
 underlay, which is probably not particularly useful in this context.
-
---
-
-This plugin also adds an `add_templates` option to the setup file.
-Its value is a list of template directories to look for template files in,
-if they are not present in the `templatedir`.