diff --git a/pelican/__init__.py b/pelican/__init__.py
index 566cb3b0..a4d61b73 100644
--- a/pelican/__init__.py
+++ b/pelican/__init__.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ class Pelican(object):
         self.theme = settings['THEME']
         self.output_path = settings['OUTPUT_PATH']
         self.markup = settings['MARKUP']
+        self.ignore_files = settings['IGNORE_FILES']
         self.delete_outputdir = settings['DELETE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY']
 
         self.init_path()
@@ -292,8 +293,8 @@ def main():
                     # restriction; all files are recursively checked if they
                     # have changed, no matter what extension the filenames
                     # have.
-                    if files_changed(pelican.path, pelican.markup) or \
-                            files_changed(pelican.theme, ['']):
+                    if files_changed(pelican.path, pelican.markup, pelican.ignore_files) or \
+                            files_changed(pelican.theme, [''], pelican.ignore_files):
                         if not files_found_error:
                             files_found_error = True
                         pelican.run()
diff --git a/pelican/settings.py b/pelican/settings.py
index e4e0501d..8d6c1608 100644
--- a/pelican/settings.py
+++ b/pelican/settings.py
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ _DEFAULT_CONFIG = {'PATH': '.',
                    'TYPOGRIFY': False,
                    'SUMMARY_MAX_LENGTH': 50,
                    'PLUGINS': [],
-                   'TEMPLATE_PAGES': {}
+                   'TEMPLATE_PAGES': {},
+                   'IGNORE_FILES': []
                    }
 
 
diff --git a/pelican/utils.py b/pelican/utils.py
index edf5068b..cfbc3c23 100644
--- a/pelican/utils.py
+++ b/pelican/utils.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import traceback
 import logging
 import errno
 import locale
+import fnmatch
 from collections import defaultdict, Hashable
 from functools import partial
 
@@ -406,8 +407,7 @@ def process_translations(content_list):
 
 LAST_MTIME = 0
 
-
-def files_changed(path, extensions):
+def files_changed(path, extensions, ignores=[]):
     """Return True if the files have changed since the last check"""
 
     def file_times(path):
@@ -415,7 +415,8 @@ def files_changed(path, extensions):
         for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
             dirs[:] = [x for x in dirs if x[0] != '.']
             for f in files:
-                if any(f.endswith(ext) for ext in extensions):
+                if any(f.endswith(ext) for ext in extensions) \
+                        and not any(fnmatch.fnmatch(f, ignore) for ignore in ignores):
                     yield os.stat(os.path.join(root, f)).st_mtime
 
     global LAST_MTIME