diff --git a/dotcom-rendering/makefile b/dotcom-rendering/makefile
index 781fdd9f106..fc9dbaeb6f0 100644
--- a/dotcom-rendering/makefile
+++ b/dotcom-rendering/makefile
@@ -183,8 +183,8 @@ validate-build: # private
 
 check-env: # private
 	$(call log, "checking environment")
-	@ cd .. && scripts/env/check-node
-	@node scripts/env/check-yarn.js
+	@cd .. && scripts/env/check-node
+	@cd .. && scripts/env/check-yarn
 
 clear: # private
 	@clear
diff --git a/dotcom-rendering/scripts/env/check-yarn.js b/dotcom-rendering/scripts/env/check-yarn.js
deleted file mode 100644
index e1191e97ae7..00000000000
--- a/dotcom-rendering/scripts/env/check-yarn.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,32 +0,0 @@
-const { promisify } = require('node:util');
-const exec = promisify(require('node:child_process').execFile);
-const ensure = require('./ensure');
-
-// Yarn v1.x support .yarnrc, so we can use a local (check-in) copy of yarn
-const YARN_MIN_VERSION = '1.x';
-
-// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-floating-promises
-(async () => {
-	try {
-		// This will fail if yarn isn't installed, and force into the catch,
-		// where we install yarn with NPM (mainly for CI)
-		const { stdout: version } = await exec('yarn', ['--version']);
-
-		const [semver] = await ensure('semver');
-
-		if (!semver.satisfies(version, YARN_MIN_VERSION)) {
-			const { warn, prompt, log } = require('../../../scripts/log');
-			warn(
-				`dotcom-rendering requires Yarn >=${YARN_MIN_VERSION}`,
-				`You are using v${version}`,
-			);
-			prompt('Please upgrade yarn');
-			log('https://classic.yarnpkg.com/en/docs/install');
-
-			process.exit(1);
-		}
-	} catch (e) {
-		require('../../../scripts/log').log(`Installing yarn`);
-		await exec('npm', ['i', '-g', `yarn@${YARN_MIN_VERSION}`]);
-	}
-})();
diff --git a/dotcom-rendering/scripts/env/ensure.js b/dotcom-rendering/scripts/env/ensure.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 008f1e6a8e8..00000000000
--- a/dotcom-rendering/scripts/env/ensure.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,37 +0,0 @@
-// provides a way to use packages in scripts when we don't know
-// if they've been installed yet (with yarn) by temporarily
-// installing with npm if node cannot resolve the package
-
-const { log } = require('../../../scripts/log');
-
-module.exports = (...packages) =>
-	new Promise((resolve) => {
-		try {
-			resolve(packages.map(require));
-		} catch (e) {
-			log(`Pre-installing dependency (${packages.join(', ')})...`);
-			const npmInstallProcess = require('node:child_process')
-				.spawn('npm', [
-					'i',
-					...packages,
-					'--no-save',
-					'--legacy-peer-deps',
-					'--package-lock=false',
-				])
-				.on('close', (code) => {
-					if (code !== 0) {
-						process.exit(code);
-					}
-					try {
-						resolve(packages.map(require));
-					} catch (e2) {
-						// eslint-disable-next-line no-console
-						console.log(e2);
-						process.exit(1);
-					}
-				})
-				.stderr.on('data', (data) =>
-					console.error(Buffer.from(data).toString()),
-				);
-		}
-	});
diff --git a/scripts/env/check-yarn b/scripts/env/check-yarn
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..91e5891c69b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/env/check-yarn
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Check that yarn is available. If not, ask the user to run `corepack enable`
+# which will provide it. Note that any yarn@>1 will do, since it will defer to
+# the copy in that lives in .yarn/releases (which is the version we want to
+# use).
+
+in_terminal() { test -t 1; }
+
+strip_colors() {
+    local text="$1"
+    printf "$text" | sed -e $'s/\x1b\[[0-9;]*m//g'
+}
+
+log_with_color() {
+    local text="$1"
+
+    # Check if output is a terminal and supports color
+    if in_terminal && [[ $(tput colors) -ge 8 ]]; then
+        # Terminal supports color, print the text as it is
+        echo -e "$text"
+    else
+        # Terminal does not support color, strip color codes and print
+        echo "$(strip_colors "$text")"
+    fi
+}
+
+blue='\033[0;34m'
+red='\033[0;31m'
+dim='\033[2m'
+reset='\033[0m'
+
+if ! command -v yarn &> /dev/null; then
+	log_with_color "${red}Could not find yarn. Please run 'corepack enable'.${reset}"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+log_with_color "${dim}Using yarn ${blue}$(yarn -v)${reset}"