diff --git a/.github/versions-matrix.R b/.github/versions-matrix.R
index c9ac3abd..402d7aeb 100644
--- a/.github/versions-matrix.R
+++ b/.github/versions-matrix.R
@@ -8,6 +8,14 @@ bullets <-
 version_bullets <- grep("^R-([0-9]+-[0-9]+-[0-9]+)/$", bullets, value = TRUE)
 versions <- unique(gsub("^R-([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)-[0-9]+/$", "\\1.\\2", version_bullets))
 
+# Respect minimum R version from DESCRIPTION
+deps <- desc::desc_get_deps()
+r_crit <- deps$version[deps$package == "R"]
+if (length(r_crit) == 1) {
+  min_r <- as.package_version(gsub("^>= ([0-9]+[.][0-9]+)(?:.*)$", "\\1", r_crit))
+  versions <- versions[as.package_version(versions) >= min_r]
+}
+
 versions <- setdiff(versions, r_versions)
 versions <- tail(versions, 1L)
 
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0f7d8169..feb55fbf 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,3 +13,7 @@
 docs
 inst/docs
 scripts
+
+# R CMD check artifacts
+*.Rcheck
+*.tar.gz
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index fabbf889..aee87e5d 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ URL: https://github.com/poissonconsulting/chk,
     https://poissonconsulting.github.io/chk/
 BugReports: https://github.com/poissonconsulting/chk/issues/
 Depends: 
-    R (>= 4.0)
+    R (>= 4.1)
 Imports: 
     lifecycle,
     methods,