diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 656602b9e..a14beb423 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ option(BUILD_OPENCS "build OpenMW Construction Set" ON)
 option(BUILD_WIZARD "build Installation Wizard" ON)
 option(BUILD_WITH_CODE_COVERAGE "Enable code coverage with gconv" OFF)
 option(BUILD_UNITTESTS "Enable Unittests with Google C++ Unittest" OFF)
+option(BUILD_NIFTEST "build nif file tester" OFF)
 option(BUILD_MYGUI_PLUGIN "build MyGUI plugin for OpenMW resources, to use with MyGUI tools" ON)
 
 # OS X deployment
@@ -396,6 +397,9 @@ IF(NOT WIN32 AND NOT APPLE)
     IF(BUILD_ESMTOOL)
         INSTALL(PROGRAMS "${OpenMW_BINARY_DIR}/esmtool" DESTINATION "${BINDIR}" )
     ENDIF(BUILD_ESMTOOL)
+    IF(BUILD_NIFTEST)
+        INSTALL(PROGRAMS "${OpenMW_BINARY_DIR}/niftest" DESTINATION "${BINDIR}" )
+    ENDIF(BUILD_NIFTEST)
     IF(BUILD_MWINIIMPORTER)
         INSTALL(PROGRAMS "${OpenMW_BINARY_DIR}/openmw-iniimporter" DESTINATION "${BINDIR}" )
     ENDIF(BUILD_MWINIIMPORTER)
@@ -581,6 +585,10 @@ if (BUILD_WIZARD)
    add_subdirectory(apps/wizard)
 endif()
 
+if (BUILD_NIFTEST)
+    add_subdirectory(apps/niftest)
+endif(BUILD_NIFTEST)
+
 # UnitTests
 if (BUILD_UNITTESTS)
   add_subdirectory( apps/openmw_test_suite )
diff --git a/apps/niftest/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/niftest/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d7f0200d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/niftest/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+set(NIFTEST
+    niftest.cpp
+)
+source_group(components\\nif\\tests FILES ${NIFTEST})
+
+# Main executable
+add_executable(niftest
+    ${NIFTEST}
+)
+
+target_link_libraries(niftest
+  ${Boost_FILESYSTEM_LIBRARY}
+  components
+)
+
+if (BUILD_WITH_CODE_COVERAGE)
+  add_definitions (--coverage)
+  target_link_libraries(niftest gcov)
+endif()
diff --git a/apps/niftest/find_bad_nifs.sh b/apps/niftest/find_bad_nifs.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..4b599f442
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/niftest/find_bad_nifs.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#Script to test all nif files (both loose, and in BSA archives) in data files directory
+
+#The user input as an absolute path
+DATAFILESDIR="`readlink -m "$1"`"
+#Program used to test
+TEST_PROG="`pwd`/niftest"
+
+#Make sure our files don't bother anyone
+NIFTEST_TMP_DIR="/tmp/niftest_$RANDOM/"
+mkdir "$NIFTEST_TMP_DIR"
+cd "$NIFTEST_TMP_DIR"
+
+find "$DATAFILESDIR" -iname *bsa > nifs.txt
+find "$DATAFILESDIR" -iname *nif >> nifs.txt
+
+sed -e 's/.*/\"&\"/' nifs.txt > quoted_nifs.txt
+
+xargs --arg-file=quoted_nifs.txt "$TEST_PROG" 2>&1 | tee nif_out.txt
+# xargs --arg-file=quoted_nifs.txt "$TEST_PROG" 2> nif_out.txt >/dev/null
+
+echo "List of bad NIF Files:"
+cat nif_out.txt|grep File:|cut -d ' ' -f 2-
+
+rm nifs.txt
+rm quoted_nifs.txt
+rm nif_out.txt
+rmdir "$NIFTEST_TMP_DIR"
diff --git a/apps/niftest/niftest.cpp b/apps/niftest/niftest.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..20c8597f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/niftest/niftest.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+///Program to test .nif files both on the FileSystem and in BSA archives.
+
+#include <iostream>
+#include <fstream>
+
+#include <components/nif/niffile.hpp>
+#include <components/files/constrainedfilestream.hpp>
+#include <components/vfs/manager.hpp>
+#include <components/vfs/bsaarchive.hpp>
+
+
+///See if the file has the named extension
+bool hasExtension(std::string filename, std::string  extensionToFind)
+{
+    std::string extension = filename.substr(filename.find_last_of(".")+1);
+
+    //Convert strings to lower case for comparison
+    std::transform(extension.begin(), extension.end(), extension.begin(), ::tolower);
+    std::transform(extensionToFind.begin(), extensionToFind.end(), extensionToFind.begin(), ::tolower);
+
+    if(extension == extensionToFind)
+        return true;
+    else
+        return false;
+}
+
+///See if the file has the "nif" extension.
+bool isNIF(std::string filename)
+{
+    return hasExtension(filename,"nif");
+}
+///See if the file has the "bsa" extension.
+bool isBSA(std::string filename)
+{
+    return hasExtension(filename,"bsa");
+}
+
+///Check all the nif files in the given BSA archive
+void readBSA(std::string filename)
+{
+    VFS::Manager myManager(false);
+    myManager.addArchive(new VFS::BsaArchive(filename));
+    myManager.buildIndex();
+
+    std::map<std::string, VFS::File*> files=myManager.getIndex();
+    for(std::map<std::string, VFS::File*>::const_iterator it=files.begin(); it!=files.end(); ++it)
+    {
+      std::string name = it->first;
+      if(isNIF(name))
+      {
+//           std::cout << "Decoding: " << name << std::endl;
+          Nif::NIFFile temp_nif(myManager.get(name),name);
+      }
+    }
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv)
+{
+
+    std::cout << "Reading Files" << std::endl;
+     for(int i = 1; i<argc;i++)
+     {
+         std::string name = argv[i];
+
+        try{
+            if(isNIF(name))
+            {
+                //std::cout << "Decoding: " << name << std::endl;
+                Nif::NIFFile temp_nif(Files::openConstrainedFileStream(name.c_str()),name);
+             }
+             else if(isBSA(name))
+             {
+                std::cout << "Reading BSA File: " << name << std::endl;
+                readBSA(name);
+             }
+             else
+             {
+                 std::cerr << "ERROR:  \"" << name << "\" is not a nif or bsa file!" << std::endl;
+             }
+        }
+        catch (std::exception& e)
+        {
+            std::cerr << "ERROR, an exception has occurred:  " << e.what() << std::endl;
+        }
+     }
+     return 0;
+}