diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/README.rst b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/README.rst
index c2a4412c..1984ea86 100644
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/README.rst
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/README.rst
@@ -26,9 +26,3 @@ Notes:
    being missing, consider installing/generating the relevant locale.
    This may be as simple as having language-pack-XX installed in the
    pre-install stage
-
- * This element ensures /tmp/ccache will be available in the chroot
-   during the root, extra-data, pre-install, install and post-install
-   stages.  /tmp/ccache is unavailable during block-device, finalise
-   and cleanup stages as it will have been automatically unmounted
-   by then.
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/cleanup.d/01-ccache b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/cleanup.d/01-ccache
deleted file mode 100755
index 396d1a4a..00000000
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/cleanup.d/01-ccache
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-if [ ${DIB_DEBUG_TRACE:-0} -gt 0 ]; then
-    set -x
-fi
-set -eu
-set -o pipefail
-
-# As this is run in cleanup, it's already been automatically unmounted,
-# so all we need to do here is remove the directory
-sudo rmdir $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/tmp/ccache || true
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/environment.d/10-ccache.bash b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/environment.d/10-ccache.bash
deleted file mode 100644
index 7359b3f3..00000000
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/environment.d/10-ccache.bash
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-# Put ccache in path for known compilers
-for CCACHEDIR in "/usr/lib/ccache" "/usr/lib64/ccache" ; do
-    if ! [[ "$PATH" =~ "$CCACHEDIR" ]] ; then
-        export PATH=$CCACHEDIR:$PATH
-    fi
-done
-export CCACHE_DIR=/tmp/ccache
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/package-installs.yaml b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/package-installs.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index afe7c77a..00000000
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/package-installs.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-ccache_package:
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/pkg-map b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/pkg-map
index 316bd849..f9694a10 100644
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/pkg-map
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/pkg-map
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
       "iscsi_package": "iscsi-initiator-utils"
     },
     "gentoo": {
-      "ccache_package": "dev-util/ccache",
       "curl": "net-misc/curl",
       "dhcp_client": "net-misc/dhcp",
       "extlinux": "sys-boot/syslinux",
@@ -26,7 +25,6 @@
     }
   },
   "default": {
-    "ccache_package": "ccache",
     "iscsi_package": "open-iscsi"
   }
 }
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/root.d/01-ccache b/diskimage_builder/elements/base/root.d/01-ccache
deleted file mode 100755
index 0a61603c..00000000
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/base/root.d/01-ccache
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-if [ ${DIB_DEBUG_TRACE:-0} -gt 0 ]; then
-    set -x
-fi
-set -eu
-set -o pipefail
-
-# Don't do anything if already mounted (if disk-image-create is invoked with
-# no elements specified, this hook actually fires twice, once during
-# `run_d root` for the base element, then again when `run_d root` is called
-# after automatically pulling in the Ubuntu element)
-grep " $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/tmp/ccache" /proc/mounts && exit
-
-DIB_CCACHE_DIR=${DIB_CCACHE_DIR:-$DIB_IMAGE_CACHE/ccache}
-mkdir -p $DIB_CCACHE_DIR
-
-sudo mkdir -p $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/tmp/ccache
-sudo mount --bind $DIB_CCACHE_DIR $TMP_MOUNT_PATH/tmp/ccache
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist b/diskimage_builder/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist
index 6c1c1911..7589582c 100755
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist
@@ -6,4 +6,7 @@ fi
 set -eu
 set -o pipefail
 
-echo "ccache dkms" > /tmp/yum-blacklist
+# This is packages that are required for installation by other
+# elements (like base) but aren't actually available for this
+# platform.  This is a bit of a hack
+echo "dkms" > /tmp/yum-blacklist
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/zypper/install.d/01-ccache-symlinks b/diskimage_builder/elements/zypper/install.d/01-ccache-symlinks
deleted file mode 100755
index 9ed6cfe4..00000000
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/zypper/install.d/01-ccache-symlinks
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-if [ ${DIB_DEBUG_TRACE:-0} -gt 0 ]; then
-    set -x
-fi
-set -eu
-set -o pipefail
-
-# Setup ccache symlinks, as openSUSE's ccache package doesn't
-# include them.
-mkdir -p /usr/lib/ccache
-for tool in cc gcc; do
-    ln -s /usr/bin/ccache /usr/lib/ccache/$tool
-done
diff --git a/doc/source/developer/caches.rst b/doc/source/developer/caches.rst
index 6c80b9f9..89db95f0 100644
--- a/doc/source/developer/caches.rst
+++ b/doc/source/developer/caches.rst
@@ -32,12 +32,6 @@ source-repositories
 Git repositories and tarballs obtained via the
 :doc:`../elements/source-repositories/README` element will be cached.
 
-C and C++ compilation
----------------------
-
-Ccache is configured by the :doc:`../elements/base/README` element. Any
-compilation that honours ccache will be cached.
-
 PyPI
 ----