diff --git a/pyfive/__init__.py b/pyfive/__init__.py
index f2c54dc4..9d5a95f8 100644
--- a/pyfive/__init__.py
+++ b/pyfive/__init__.py
@@ -10,5 +10,16 @@
 from importlib.metadata import version
 from pyfive.inspect import p5ncdump
 
-__version__ = '0.5.0.dev'
+from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
+
+try:
+    __version__ = version("pyfive")
+except PackageNotFoundError as exc:
+    msg = (
+        "pyfive package not found, please run `pip install -e .` before "
+        "importing the package."
+    )
+    raise PackageNotFoundError(
+        msg,
+    ) from exc
 
diff --git a/tests/test_version.py b/tests/test_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..88494b84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import pyfive
+
+from importlib.metadata import version
+
+
+def test_version():
+    """Test package version."""
+    __version__ = version("pyfive")
+    print(__version__)
+    assert int(__version__[0]) == 1
+    assert pyfive.__version__ == __version__