diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index a64551681220..8da8258489eb 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 1.2.17
+ * cqlsh: ignore .cassandra permission errors (CASSANDRA-7266)
  * Errors in FlushRunnable may leave threads hung (CASSANDRA-7275)
  * reduce failure detector initial value to 2s (CASSANDRA-7307)
  * Fix problem truncating on a node that was previously in a dead state (CASSANDRA-7318)
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh b/bin/cqlsh
index 24cb3b8bf414..cec9aac5f90d 100755
--- a/bin/cqlsh
+++ b/bin/cqlsh
@@ -122,7 +122,10 @@ HISTORY_DIR = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', '.cassandra'))
 CONFIG_FILE = os.path.join(HISTORY_DIR, 'cqlshrc')
 HISTORY = os.path.join(HISTORY_DIR, 'cqlsh_history')
 if not os.path.exists(HISTORY_DIR):
-    os.mkdir(HISTORY_DIR)
+    try:
+        os.mkdir(HISTORY_DIR)
+    except OSError:
+        print '\nWarning: Cannot create directory at `%s`. Command history will not be saved.\n' % HISTORY_DIR
 
 OLD_CONFIG_FILE = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', '.cqlshrc'))
 if os.path.exists(OLD_CONFIG_FILE):