diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index c34f71db1..ec26d7b2f 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -2106,6 +2106,17 @@ Options for the linkcheck builder
 
    .. versionadded:: 1.2
 
+.. confval:: linkcheck_anchors_ignore
+
+   A list of regular expressions that match URIs that should skip checking
+   the validity of anchors in links. This allows skipping entire sites, where
+   anchors are used to control dynamic pages, or just specific anchors within
+   a page, where javascript is used to add anchors dynamically, or use the
+   fragment as part of to trigger an internal REST request. Default is
+   ``["/#!"]``.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 1.5
+
 
 Options for the XML builder
 ---------------------------
diff --git a/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py b/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py
index e53cabb62..f49f4f9a3 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/linkcheck.py
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ class CheckExternalLinksBuilder(Builder):
 
     def init(self):
         self.to_ignore = [re.compile(x) for x in self.app.config.linkcheck_ignore]
+        self.anchors_ignore = [re.compile(x)
+                               for x in self.app.config.linkcheck_anchors_ignore]
         self.good = set()
         self.broken = {}
         self.redirected = {}
@@ -112,6 +114,10 @@ class CheckExternalLinksBuilder(Builder):
             # split off anchor
             if '#' in uri:
                 req_url, anchor = uri.split('#', 1)
+                for rex in self.anchors_ignore:
+                    if rex.match(anchor):
+                        anchor = None
+                        break
             else:
                 req_url = uri
                 anchor = None
@@ -123,11 +129,8 @@ class CheckExternalLinksBuilder(Builder):
                 req_url = encode_uri(req_url)
 
             try:
-                if anchor and self.app.config.linkcheck_anchors and \
-                   not anchor.startswith('!'):
+                if anchor and self.app.config.linkcheck_anchors:
                     # Read the whole document and see if #anchor exists
-                    # (Anchors starting with ! are ignored since they are
-                    # commonly used for dynamic pages)
                     response = requests.get(req_url, stream=True, headers=self.headers,
                                             **kwargs)
                     found = check_anchor(response, unquote(anchor))
@@ -294,3 +297,6 @@ def setup(app):
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_timeout', None, None, [int])
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_workers', 5, None)
     app.add_config_value('linkcheck_anchors', True, None)
+    # Anchors starting with ! are ignored since they are
+    # commonly used for dynamic pages
+    app.add_config_value('linkcheck_anchors_ignore', ["^!"], None)
diff --git a/tests/roots/test-linkcheck/links.txt b/tests/roots/test-linkcheck/links.txt
index c3ec7235e..ef3607970 100644
--- a/tests/roots/test-linkcheck/links.txt
+++ b/tests/roots/test-linkcheck/links.txt
@@ -2,3 +2,10 @@ This is from CPython documentation.
 
 * Also, if there is a `default namespace <https://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-names-20060816/#defaulting>`__, that full URI gets prepended to all of the non-prefixed tags.
 * The `SSMEDIAN <https://help.gnome.org/users/gnumeric/stable/gnumeric.html#gnumeric-function-SSMEDIAN>`_ function in the Gnome Gnumeric spreadsheet.
+
+
+Some additional anchors to exercise ignore code
+
+* `Example Bar invalid <http://example.com/#!bar>`_
+* `Example Bar invalid <http://example.com#!bar>`_ tests that default ignore anchor of #! does not need to be prefixed with /
+* `Example Bar invalid <http://example.com/#top>`_
diff --git a/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py b/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
index 700642901..1d75135af 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
@@ -14,12 +14,25 @@ from util import with_app
 
 
 @with_app('linkcheck', testroot='linkcheck', freshenv=True)
-def test_all(app, status, warning):
+def test_defaults(app, status, warning):
     app.builder.build_all()
 
     assert (app.outdir / 'output.txt').exists()
     content = (app.outdir / 'output.txt').text()
 
-    # expect all ok
-    assert not content
+    print(content)
+    # looking for #top should fail
+    assert "Anchor 'top' not found" in content
+    assert len(content.splitlines()) == 1
 
+
+@with_app('linkcheck', testroot='linkcheck', freshenv=True,
+          confoverrides={'linkcheck_anchors_ignore': ["^!", "^top$"]})
+def test_anchors_ignored(app, status, warning):
+    app.builder.build_all()
+
+    assert (app.outdir / 'output.txt').exists()
+    content = (app.outdir / 'output.txt').text()
+
+    # expect all ok when excluding #top
+    assert not content