diff --git a/circuits/cpp/barretenberg/cpp/bootstrap.sh b/circuits/cpp/barretenberg/cpp/bootstrap.sh
index e9f41cba246..9d2d0bbcdf2 100755
--- a/circuits/cpp/barretenberg/cpp/bootstrap.sh
+++ b/circuits/cpp/barretenberg/cpp/bootstrap.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,26 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-set -eu
+set -u
+
+# Get the clang version string
+clang_version_string=$(clang --version 2>/dev/null)
+
+# Check if clang is installed
+if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+  echo "Error: clang is not installed."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Extract the major version number
+major_version=$(echo $clang_version_string | awk -F' ' '/clang version/{print $3}' | awk -F'.' '{print $1}')
+
+if [ "$major_version" -ge 16 ]; then
+  echo "clang version $major_version is good."
+else
+  echo "Error: clang version 16 or greater is required."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+set -e
 
 # Clean.
 rm -rf ./build