diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index c25f6833..8be637a1 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ gemspec
 gem "cucumber", "~> 0.9.2"
 gem "rspec", "~>2.0.0"
 gem "rails", "~>3.0.0.rc"
-gem "compass-validator", "3.0.0"
+gem "compass-validator", "3.0.1"
 gem "css_parser", "~> 1.0.1"
 gem "sass", "~>3.1"
 gem "haml", "~> 3.1"
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 9f979828..86c2008b 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ GIT
 PATH
   remote: .
   specs:
-    compass (0.11.1.f248c22)
+    compass (0.11.3.e4a22c4)
       chunky_png (~> 1.1)
       fssm (>= 0.2.7)
       sass (~> 3.1)
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ GEM
       sys-uname
     builder (2.1.2)
     chunky_png (1.2.0)
-    compass-validator (3.0.0)
+    compass-validator (3.0.1)
     css_parser (1.0.1)
     cucumber (0.9.4)
       builder (~> 2.1.2)
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   autotest
   autotest-fsevent
   compass!
-  compass-validator (= 3.0.0)
+  compass-validator (= 3.0.1)
   css_parser (~> 1.0.1)
   cucumber (~> 0.9.2)
   diff-lcs (~> 1.1.2)
diff --git a/lib/compass/validator.rb b/lib/compass/validator.rb
index adb9b9d8..f8197a3f 100644
--- a/lib/compass/validator.rb
+++ b/lib/compass/validator.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,16 @@
 begin
   require 'rubygems'
   require 'compass-validator'
-rescue LoadError
-  raise Compass::MissingDependency, %Q{The Compass CSS Validator could not be loaded. Please install it:
-
+rescue LoadError => e
+  if e.message =~ /core_ext/
+    raise Compass::MissingDependency, <<-ERRORMSG
+The Compass CSS Validator is out of date. Please upgrade it:
+sudo gem install compass-validator --version ">= 3.0.1"
+ERRORMSG
+  else
+    raise Compass::MissingDependency, <<-ERRORMSG
+The Compass CSS Validator could not be loaded. Please install it:
 sudo gem install compass-validator
-}
+ERRORMSG
+  end
 end