AbstractRecent work has emphasised the importance of D‐ribose aminooxazoline 1 in the synthesis of cytidine ribonucleosides under potentially prebiotic conditions. Upon treatment with cyanoacetylene, 1 is transformed into α‐D‐cytidine (α‐2), and if an efficient means of anomerising this nucleoside or a derivative thereof were to be found, then the synthesis of one of the key β‐D‐nucleosides required to make RNA would be realised. Photoanomerisation of α‐2 has previously been described, but the yield was extremely low. Therefore, the present study was initiated to determine whether this low yield was the result of a low conversion or competing reaction pathways.