diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 00e8501a8..3567a7a2f 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@ Suggests:
     ggplot2,
     inlabru,
     INLAspacetime,
+    INLA,
     knitr,
     rgdal,
     rmarkdown,
diff --git a/R/barrier.R b/R/barrier.R
index 9f1975e81..f8298e002 100644
--- a/R/barrier.R
+++ b/R/barrier.R
@@ -114,6 +114,9 @@ add_barrier_mesh <- function(spde_obj, barrier_sf, range_fraction = 0.2,
   if (!requireNamespace("INLAspacetime", quietly = TRUE)) {
     cli_abort("The INLAspacetime package must be installed to use this function.")
   }
+  if (!requireNamespace("INLAspacetime", quietly = TRUE)) {
+    cli_abort("The INLA package must be installed to use this function.")
+  } # b/c INLAspacetime uses it!!
 
   assert_that(
     is.numeric(range_fraction), range_fraction <= 1,