diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5ec1d0a05..24152de37 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 Note: You should always set `allow-deprecated-apis=false` to test for
 changes.
 
+- plugins: using startup-relative paths for `plugin` and `plugin-dir`: they're now relative to `lightning-dir`.
+
 ### Removed
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/lightningd/lightningd.c b/lightningd/lightningd.c
index c26ff2414..73cc1d7bf 100644
--- a/lightningd/lightningd.c
+++ b/lightningd/lightningd.c
@@ -214,6 +214,11 @@ static struct lightningd *new_lightningd(const tal_t *ctx)
 	 */
 	jsonrpc_setup(ld);
 
+	/*~ We changed when we start plugins, messing up relative paths.
+	 * This saves our original dirs so we can fixup and warn for the
+	 * moment (0.7.2). */
+	ld->original_directory = path_cwd(ld);
+
 	/*~ We run a number of plugins (subprocesses that we talk JSON-RPC with)
 	 *alongside this process. This allows us to have an easy way for users
 	 *to add their own tools without having to modify the c-lightning source
diff --git a/lightningd/lightningd.h b/lightningd/lightningd.h
index 47f496175..ecd8ab72c 100644
--- a/lightningd/lightningd.h
+++ b/lightningd/lightningd.h
@@ -223,6 +223,9 @@ struct lightningd {
 	char *tor_service_password;
 	bool pure_tor_setup;
 
+	/* Original directory for deprecated plugin-relative-to-cwd */
+	const char *original_directory;
+
 	struct plugins *plugins;
 };
 
diff --git a/lightningd/plugin.c b/lightningd/plugin.c
index 0bb31a457..bf375488a 100644
--- a/lightningd/plugin.c
+++ b/lightningd/plugin.c
@@ -63,9 +63,26 @@ void plugin_register(struct plugins *plugins, const char* path TAKES)
 	}
 
 	p = tal(plugins, struct plugin);
-	list_add_tail(&plugins->plugins, &p->list);
 	p->plugins = plugins;
 	p->cmd = tal_strdup(p, path);
+
+	/* Fix up old-style relative paths */
+	if (deprecated_apis
+	    && !path_is_abs(p->cmd)
+	    && access(p->cmd, X_OK) != 0) {
+		char *oldpath = path_join(tmpctx,
+					  plugins->ld->original_directory,
+					  p->cmd);
+		if (access(oldpath, X_OK) == 0) {
+			log_unusual(plugins->log, "DEPRECATED WARNING:"
+				    " plugin is now relative to"
+				    " lightning-dir, please change to"
+				    " plugin=%s",
+				    oldpath);
+			tal_free(p->cmd);
+			p->cmd = tal_steal(p, oldpath);
+		}
+	}
 	p->plugin_state = UNCONFIGURED;
 	p->js_arr = tal_arr(p, struct json_stream *, 0);
 	p->used = 0;
@@ -76,6 +93,8 @@ void plugin_register(struct plugins *plugins, const char* path TAKES)
 			 path_basename(tmpctx, p->cmd));
 	p->methods = tal_arr(p, const char *, 0);
 	list_head_init(&p->plugin_opts);
+
+	list_add_tail(&plugins->plugins, &p->list);
 	tal_add_destructor(p, destroy_plugin);
 }
 
@@ -877,10 +896,24 @@ char *add_plugin_dir(struct plugins *plugins, const char *dir, bool nonexist_ok)
 	struct dirent *di;
 	DIR *d = opendir(dir);
 	if (!d) {
-		if (nonexist_ok && errno == ENOENT)
-			return NULL;
-		return tal_fmt(NULL, "Failed to open plugin-dir %s: %s",
-			       dir, strerror(errno));
+		if (deprecated_apis && !path_is_abs(dir)) {
+			dir = path_join(tmpctx,
+					plugins->ld->original_directory, dir);
+			d = opendir(dir);
+			if (d) {
+				log_unusual(plugins->log, "DEPRECATED WARNING:"
+					    " plugin-dir is now relative to"
+					    " lightning-dir, please change to"
+					    " plugin-dir=%s",
+					    dir);
+			}
+		}
+		if (!d) {
+			if (!nonexist_ok && errno == ENOENT)
+				return NULL;
+			return tal_fmt(NULL, "Failed to open plugin-dir %s: %s",
+				       dir, strerror(errno));
+		}
 	}
 
 	while ((di = readdir(d)) != NULL) {
diff --git a/tests/test_plugin.py b/tests/test_plugin.py
index 2e0e707fc..213e9f29a 100644
--- a/tests/test_plugin.py
+++ b/tests/test_plugin.py
@@ -651,3 +651,22 @@ def test_forward_event_notification(node_factory, bitcoind, executor):
     assert l2.rpc.call('recordcheck', {'payment_hash': payment_hash14, 'status': 'failed', 'dbforward': stats['forwards'][1]})
     assert l2.rpc.call('recordcheck', {'payment_hash': payment_hash15, 'status': 'offered', 'dbforward': stats['forwards'][2]})
     assert l2.rpc.call('recordcheck', {'payment_hash': payment_hash15, 'status': 'local_failed', 'dbforward': stats['forwards'][2]})
+
+
+def test_plugin_deprecated_relpath(node_factory):
+    """Test that we can use old-style relative plugin paths with deprecated-apis"""
+    l1 = node_factory.get_node(options={'plugin-dir': 'contrib/plugins',
+                                        'plugin': 'tests/plugins/millisatoshis.py',
+                                        'allow-deprecated-apis': True})
+
+    plugins = l1.rpc.plugin_list()['plugins']
+    assert ('helloworld.py', True) in [(os.path.basename(p['name']), p['active']) for p in plugins]
+    assert ('millisatoshis.py', True) in [(os.path.basename(p['name']), p['active']) for p in plugins]
+
+    assert l1.daemon.is_in_log('DEPRECATED WARNING.*plugin-dir={}'
+                               .format(os.path.join(os.getcwd(),
+                                                    'contrib/plugins')))
+
+    assert l1.daemon.is_in_log('DEPRECATED WARNING.*plugin={}'
+                               .format(os.path.join(os.getcwd(),
+                                                    'tests/plugins/millisatoshis.py')))