diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index 5859c59d9ddbc7e701145c40f8f0a35b92a075c3..37c88f1f9cc5facd61beb5f840fb83f7fcd92d8f 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ nobase_noinst_HEADERS = align.h approx_math.h atomic.h cycle.h error.h inline.h
 		 riemann/riemann_exact.h riemann/riemann_vacuum.h \
 	         potential/none/potential.h potential/point_mass/potential.h \
                  potential/isothermal/potential.h potential/disc_patch/potential.h \
+		 potential/softened_isothermal/potential.h \
 		 cooling/none/cooling.h cooling/none/cooling_struct.h \
 	         cooling/const_du/cooling.h cooling/const_du/cooling_struct.h \
                  cooling/const_lambda/cooling.h cooling/const_lambda/cooling_struct.h 
diff --git a/src/potential/softened_isothermal/potential.h b/src/potential/softened_isothermal/potential.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..27a04acef7888983e6281a12d5aa654582f0eba3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/potential/softened_isothermal/potential.h
@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * This file is part of SWIFT.
+ * Copyright (c) 2016 Tom Theuns (tom.theuns@durham.ac.uk)
+ *                    Matthieu Schaller (matthieu.schaller@durham.ac.uk)
+ *                    Stefan Arridge (stefan.arridge@durham.ac.uk)
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
+ * by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ ******************************************************************************/
+#ifndef SWIFT_POTENTIAL_SOFTENED_ISOTHERMAL_H
+#define SWIFT_POTENTIAL_SOFTENED_ISOTHERMAL_H
+
+/* Config parameters. */
+#include "../config.h"
+
+/* Some standard headers. */
+#include <math.h>
+
+/* Local includes. */
+#include "error.h"
+#include "parser.h"
+#include "part.h"
+#include "physical_constants.h"
+#include "units.h"
+#include "space.h"
+
+/**
+ * @brief External Potential Properties - Softened Isothermal sphere case
+ */
+struct external_potential {
+
+  /*! Position of the centre of potential */
+  double x, y, z;
+
+  /*! Rotation velocity */
+  double vrot;
+
+  /*! Square of vrot, the circular velocity which defines the isothermal potential */
+  double vrot2_over_G;
+
+    /*! Square of the softening length. Acceleration tends to zero within this distance from the origin */
+  double epsilon2;
+
+  /*! Time-step condition pre-factor */
+  double timestep_mult;
+};
+
+/**
+ * @brief Computes the time-step due to the acceleration from an isothermal
+ * potential.
+ *
+ * @param time The current time.
+ * @param potential The #external_potential used in the run.
+ * @param phys_const The physical constants in internal units.
+ * @param g Pointer to the g-particle data.
+ */
+__attribute__((always_inline)) INLINE static float external_gravity_timestep(
+    double time, const struct external_potential* restrict potential,
+    const struct phys_const* restrict phys_const,
+    const struct gpart* restrict g) {
+
+  const float dx = g->x[0] - potential->x;
+  const float dy = g->x[1] - potential->y;
+  const float dz = g->x[2] - potential->z;
+
+  const float r2_plus_epsilon2_inv = 1.f / (dx * dx + dy * dy + dz * dz + potential->epsilon2);
+  const float drdv =
+      dx * (g->v_full[0]) + dy * (g->v_full[1]) + dz * (g->v_full[2]);
+  const double vrot = potential->vrot;
+
+  const float dota_x =
+      vrot * vrot * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv * (g->v_full[0] - 2.f * drdv * dx * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv);
+  const float dota_y =
+      vrot * vrot * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv * (g->v_full[1] - 2.f * drdv * dy * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv);
+  const float dota_z =
+      vrot * vrot * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv * (g->v_full[2] - 2.f * drdv * dz * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv);
+  const float dota_2 = dota_x * dota_x + dota_y * dota_y + dota_z * dota_z;
+  const float a_2 = g->a_grav[0] * g->a_grav[0] + g->a_grav[1] * g->a_grav[1] +
+                    g->a_grav[2] * g->a_grav[2];
+
+  return potential->timestep_mult * sqrtf(a_2 / dota_2);
+}
+
+/**
+ * @brief Computes the gravitational acceleration from an isothermal potential.
+ *
+ * Note that the accelerations are multiplied by Newton's G constant
+ * later on.
+ * 
+ * a = v_rot^2 * (x,y,z) / (r^2 + epsilon^2)
+ * @param time The current time.
+ * @param potential The #external_potential used in the run.
+ * @param phys_const The physical constants in internal units.
+ * @param g Pointer to the g-particle data.
+ */
+__attribute__((always_inline)) INLINE static void external_gravity_acceleration(
+    double time, const struct external_potential* potential,
+    const struct phys_const* const phys_const, struct gpart* g) {
+
+  const float dx = g->x[0] - potential->x;
+  const float dy = g->x[1] - potential->y;
+  const float dz = g->x[2] - potential->z;
+  const float r2_plus_epsilon2_inv = 1.f / (dx * dx + dy * dy + dz * dz + potential->epsilon2);
+
+  const double term = -potential->vrot2_over_G * r2_plus_epsilon2_inv;
+
+  g->a_grav[0] = term * dx;
+  g->a_grav[1] = term * dy;
+  g->a_grav[2] = term * dz; 
+}
+
+/**
+ * @brief Initialises the external potential properties in the internal system
+ * of units.
+ *
+ * @param parameter_file The parsed parameter file
+ * @param phys_const Physical constants in internal units
+ * @param us The current internal system of units
+ * @param potential The external potential properties to initialize
+ */
+static INLINE void potential_init_backend(
+    const struct swift_params* parameter_file,
+    const struct phys_const* phys_const, const struct UnitSystem* us,
+    const struct space* s,
+    struct external_potential* potential) {
+
+  potential->x = s->dim[0]/2. + 
+      parser_get_param_double(parameter_file, "SoftenedIsothermalPotential:position_x");
+  potential->y = s->dim[1]/2. +
+      parser_get_param_double(parameter_file, "SoftenedIsothermalPotential:position_y");
+  potential->z = s->dim[2]/2. +
+      parser_get_param_double(parameter_file, "SoftenedIsothermalPotential:position_z");
+  potential->vrot =
+      parser_get_param_double(parameter_file, "SoftenedIsothermalPotential:vrot");
+  potential->timestep_mult = parser_get_param_float(
+      parameter_file, "SoftenedIsothermalPotential:timestep_mult");
+  const double epsilon = parser_get_param_float(
+      parameter_file, "SoftenedIsothermalPotential:epsilon");
+  potential->vrot2_over_G = potential->vrot * potential->vrot / phys_const->const_newton_G;
+  potential->epsilon2 = epsilon * epsilon;
+}
+
+/**
+ * @brief Prints the properties of the external potential to stdout.
+ *
+ * @param  potential The external potential properties.
+ */
+static INLINE void potential_print_backend(
+    const struct external_potential* potential) {
+
+  message(
+      "External potential is 'Isothermal' with properties are (x,y,z) = (%e, "
+      "%e, %e), vrot = %e "
+      "timestep multiplier = %e, epsilon = %e",
+      potential->x, potential->y, potential->z, potential->vrot,
+      potential->timestep_mult,sqrtf(potential->epsilon2));
+}
+
+#endif /* SWIFT_POTENTIAL_ISOTHERMAL_H */