diff --git a/plugin/build.gradle.kts b/plugin/build.gradle.kts
index 7b63df374..74d852787 100644
--- a/plugin/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/plugin/build.gradle.kts
@@ -114,13 +114,6 @@ dependencies {
     "rewriteDependencies"("org.openrewrite:rewrite-polyglot:$latest")
     "rewriteDependencies"("org.openrewrite.gradle.tooling:model:$latest")
     "rewriteDependencies"("org.openrewrite:rewrite-maven")
-    // Newer versions of checkstyle are compiled with a newer version of Java than is supported with gradle 4.x
-    @Suppress("VulnerableLibrariesLocal", "RedundantSuppression")
-    "rewriteDependencies"("com.puppycrawl.tools:checkstyle:9.3") {
-        because("Latest version supporting gradle 4.x")
-        // We only use checkstyle to load its configuration files, and it turns out this alone is sufficient
-        isTransitive = false
-    }
     "rewriteDependencies"("com.fasterxml.jackson.module:jackson-module-kotlin:2.17.2")
     "rewriteDependencies"("com.google.guava:guava:latest.release")
     implementation(platform("org.openrewrite:rewrite-bom:$latest"))
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewriteExtension.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewriteExtension.java
index 797512822..05d75d373 100755
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewriteExtension.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewriteExtension.java
@@ -38,8 +38,13 @@ public class RewriteExtension {
     protected final Project project;
     private File configFile;
 
+    @Nullable
     private Provider<File> checkstyleConfigProvider;
+
+    @Nullable
     private Provider<Map<String, Object>> checkstylePropertiesProvider;
+
+    @Nullable
     private File checkstyleConfigFile;
     private String metricsUri = magicalMetricsLogString;
     private boolean enableExperimentalGradleBuildScriptParsing = true;
@@ -198,6 +203,7 @@ public String getRewriteVersion() {
         return rewriteVersion;
     }
 
+    @Nullable
     private String rewritePolyglotVersion;
     public String getRewritePolyglotVersion() {
         if (rewritePolyglotVersion == null) {
@@ -206,6 +212,7 @@ public String getRewritePolyglotVersion() {
         return rewritePolyglotVersion;
     }
 
+    @Nullable
     private String rewriteGradleModelVersion;
     public String getRewriteGradleModelVersion() {
         if (rewriteGradleModelVersion == null) {
@@ -214,6 +221,7 @@ public String getRewriteGradleModelVersion() {
         return rewriteGradleModelVersion;
     }
 
+    @Nullable
     private String rewriteKotlinVersion;
     public String getRewriteKotlinVersion() {
         if (rewriteKotlinVersion == null) {
@@ -222,10 +230,6 @@ public String getRewriteKotlinVersion() {
         return rewriteKotlinVersion;
     }
 
-    public String getCheckstyleToolsVersion() {
-        return getVersionProps().getProperty("com.puppycrawl.tools:checkstyle");
-    }
-
     public void setRewriteVersion(String value) {
         rewriteVersion = value;
     }
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewritePlugin.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewritePlugin.java
index a0308ca51..94e6a7c8f 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewritePlugin.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/RewritePlugin.java
@@ -212,24 +212,6 @@ private static Stream<Dependency> knownRewriteDependencies(RewriteExtension exte
                 deps.create("org.openrewrite:rewrite-yaml:" + rewriteVersion),
                 deps.create("org.openrewrite:rewrite-polyglot:" + extension.getRewritePolyglotVersion()),
                 deps.create("org.openrewrite.gradle.tooling:model:" + extension.getRewriteGradleModelVersion()),
-
-                // This is an optional dependency of rewrite-java needed when projects also apply the checkstyle plugin
-                deps.create("com.puppycrawl.tools:checkstyle:" + extension.getCheckstyleToolsVersion(), new Closure<Dependency>(deps) {
-                    @Override
-                    public Dependency call(Object arguments) {
-                        if (arguments instanceof ExternalModuleDependency) {
-                            ExternalModuleDependency dep = (ExternalModuleDependency) arguments;
-                            dep.setTransitive(false);
-                            return dep;
-                        }
-                        return super.call(arguments);
-                    }
-
-                    @Override
-                    public int getMaximumNumberOfParameters() {
-                        return 1;
-                    }
-                }),
                 deps.create("com.fasterxml.jackson.module:jackson-module-kotlin:" + extension.getJacksonModuleKotlinVersion()),
                 deps.create("com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-jsr310:" + extension.getJacksonModuleKotlinVersion())
         );