diff --git a/nc_optimisation.cmake b/nc_optimisation.cmake
index 00c0513..add187c 100644
--- a/nc_optimisation.cmake
+++ b/nc_optimisation.cmake
@@ -8,12 +8,27 @@ option(ENABLE_LTO "enable link-time optimisation" OFF)
 
 
 ##-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Enable link-time optimisation.
+##
+## Rather than rely on the INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMISATION flag we add some
+## arguments explicitly because we want a little more control over object
+## creation.
 if (ENABLE_LTO)
+    # Add the linker flags first otherwise the linker may not recognise the
+    # object format
+    append_link_flag("-fuse-linker-plugin")
+    append_link_flag("-flto")
+
+    # Actually enable LTO object creation, but try very hard to avoid
+    # situations where we may accidentally use regular/fat objects.
     append_compile_flag("-flto")
     append_compile_flag("-fno-fat-lto-objects")
-    append_link_flag("-fuse-linker-plugin")
-    append_compile_flags("-fdevirtualize-at-ltrans")
-endif (ENABLE_LTO)
+
+    # Throw in some optimisation flags that are LTO specific. We don't
+    # particularly care about checking Debug/Release here because LTO is
+    # pretty heavyweight anyway.
+    append_compile_flag("-fdevirtualize-at-ltrans")
+endif ()
 
 
 ###############################################################################