diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/AbstractHeaderCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/AbstractHeaderCheck.java
index 1500366c3..3665696f6 100755
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/AbstractHeaderCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/AbstractHeaderCheck.java
@@ -18,26 +18,30 @@
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.header;
 
-import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
-
 import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.LineNumberReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import org.apache.commons.beanutils.ConversionException;
+
+import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.AbstractFileSetCheck;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.CheckstyleException;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Utils;
 
-import org.apache.commons.beanutils.ConversionException;
-
 /**
  * Abstract super class for header checks.
  * Provides support for header and headerFile properties.
@@ -101,8 +105,9 @@ public abstract class AbstractHeaderCheck extends AbstractFileSetCheck
         checkHeaderNotInitialized();
         Reader headerReader = null;
         try {
+            final URI uri = resolveHeaderFile();
             headerReader = new InputStreamReader(new BufferedInputStream(
-                    new FileInputStream(mFilename)), mCharset);
+                    uri.toURL().openStream()), mCharset);
             loadHeader(headerReader);
         }
         catch (final IOException ex) {
@@ -114,6 +119,49 @@ public abstract class AbstractHeaderCheck extends AbstractFileSetCheck
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Resolve the specified filename param to a URI.
+     * @return resolved header file URI
+     * @throws IOException on failure
+     */
+    private URI resolveHeaderFile() throws IOException
+    {
+        // figure out if this is a File or a URL
+        URI uri;
+        try {
+            final URL url = new URL(mFilename);
+            uri = url.toURI();
+        }
+        catch (final MalformedURLException ex) {
+            uri = null;
+        }
+        catch (final URISyntaxException ex) {
+            // URL violating RFC 2396
+            uri = null;
+        }
+        if (uri == null) {
+            final File file = new File(mFilename);
+            if (file.exists()) {
+                uri = file.toURI();
+            }
+            else {
+                // check to see if the file is in the classpath
+                try {
+                    final URL configUrl = AbstractHeaderCheck.class
+                            .getResource(mFilename);
+                    if (configUrl == null) {
+                        throw new FileNotFoundException(mFilename);
+                    }
+                    uri = configUrl.toURI();
+                }
+                catch (final URISyntaxException e) {
+                    throw new FileNotFoundException(mFilename);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        return uri;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Called before initializing the header.
      * @throws ConversionException if header has already been set
diff --git a/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/HeaderCheckTest.java b/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/HeaderCheckTest.java
index 2c174f962..9b78e2ddb 100755
--- a/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/HeaderCheckTest.java
+++ b/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/header/HeaderCheckTest.java
@@ -20,10 +20,14 @@ package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.header;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
+import java.io.File;
+import java.net.URI;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.BaseFileSetCheckTestSupport;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.DefaultConfiguration;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.CheckstyleException;
-import org.junit.Test;
 
 public class HeaderCheckTest extends BaseFileSetCheckTestSupport
 {
@@ -52,6 +56,19 @@ public class HeaderCheckTest extends BaseFileSetCheckTestSupport
         verify(checkConfig, getPath("InputScopeAnonInner.java"), expected);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testRegexpHeaderURL() throws Exception
+    {
+        final DefaultConfiguration checkConfig =
+            createCheckConfig(RegexpHeaderCheck.class);
+        URI uri = (new File(getPath("regexp.header"))).toURI();
+        checkConfig.addAttribute("headerFile", uri.toString());
+        final String[] expected = {
+            "3: Line does not match expected header line of '// Created: 2002'.",
+        };
+        verify(checkConfig, getPath("InputScopeAnonInner.java"), expected);
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testInlineRegexpHeader() throws Exception
     {