diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 60c55e7a9..bc122e9c9 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 Release 1.0.2 (in development)
 ==============================
 
+* #487: Fix setting the default role to one provided by the
+  ``oldcmarkup`` extension.
+
 * #488: Fix crash when json-py is installed, which provides a
   ``json`` module but is incompatible to simplejson.
 
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/oldcmarkup.py b/sphinx/ext/oldcmarkup.py
index 84ae61dd2..00ac37495 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/oldcmarkup.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/oldcmarkup.py
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ class OldCDirective(Directive):
 
 def old_crole(typ, rawtext, text, lineno, inliner, options={}, content=[]):
     env = inliner.document.settings.env
+    if not typ:
+        typ = env.config.default_role
     if not env.app._oldcmarkup_warned:
         env.warn(env.docname, WARNING_MSG)
         env.app._oldcmarkup_warned = True