diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 84c6635..0c4f53c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -48,3 +48,5 @@ compile_commands.json
 cmake_install.cmake
 /CMakeCache.txt
 /CMakeFiles
+.venv/
+*.sif
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index acfdb88..a8b2ea6 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -174,8 +174,8 @@ endif()
 if(QIREE_BUILD_TESTS AND NOT GTest_FOUND)
   find_package(GTest)
   if(NOT GTest_FOUND)
-    message(SEND_ERROR
-      "Googletest (GTest) is required for testing but was not found"
+    message(FATAL_ERROR
+      "Googletest (GTest) is required for testing but was not found. Please install from source. Optional: If you are in a user environment, you can run `cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../install -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON ..` in the googletest/build folder, which allows you to build without sudo. Then you can set `export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$HOME/googletest/install so that QIR-EE can find the installation."
     )
   endif()
 endif()
diff --git a/src/qiree/Module.cc b/src/qiree/Module.cc
index d771eb0..3c4775c 100644
--- a/src/qiree/Module.cc
+++ b/src/qiree/Module.cc
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 //---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
 #include "Module.hh"
 
+#include <memory>
 #include <sstream>
 #include <string_view>
 #include <llvm/IR/Attributes.h>
@@ -14,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <llvm/IR/Function.h>
 #include <llvm/IR/Module.h>
 #include <llvm/IRReader/IRReader.h>
+#include <llvm/Support/MemoryBuffer.h>
 #include <llvm/Support/SourceMgr.h>
 
 #include "Assert.hh"
@@ -116,6 +118,7 @@ Module::Module(UPModule&& module) : module_{std::move(module)}
 //---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
 /*!
  * Construct with an LLVM module and an entry point.
+ *
  * Useful when there are multiple entry points.
  */
 Module::Module(UPModule&& module, std::string const& entrypoint)
@@ -155,7 +158,36 @@ Module::Module(std::string const& filename, std::string const& entrypoint)
 }
 
 //---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
+/*!
+ * Read a module by parsing an in-memory LLVM IR string.
+ */
+std::unique_ptr<Module> Module::from_bytes(std::string const& content)
+{
+    llvm::SMDiagnostic err;
+
+    // Create memory buffer from the in-memory IR content
+    std::unique_ptr<llvm::MemoryBuffer> buffer
+        = llvm::MemoryBuffer::getMemBuffer(content, "<in-memory>", false);
+
+    // Parse the IR using LLVM context
+    auto llvm_module = llvm::parseIR(buffer->getMemBufferRef(), err, context());
+
+    if (!llvm_module)
+    {
+        err.print("qiree", llvm::errs());
+        QIREE_VALIDATE(llvm_module,
+                       << "Failed to parse QIR from in-memory content '"
+                       << content << "'");
+    }
+
+    // Construct and return Module from parsed llvm::Module
+    return std::make_unique<Module>(std::move(llvm_module));
+}
+
+//! Construct in an empty state
 Module::Module() = default;
+
+// Default destructor and move
 Module::~Module() = default;
 Module::Module(Module&&) = default;
 Module& Module::operator=(Module&&) = default;
diff --git a/src/qiree/Module.hh b/src/qiree/Module.hh
index 21ed2df..8ce38c6 100644
--- a/src/qiree/Module.hh
+++ b/src/qiree/Module.hh
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #pragma once
 
 #include <memory>
+#include <string>
 
 #include "Types.hh"
 
@@ -32,15 +33,8 @@ class Module
     //!@}
 
   public:
-    // Default empty constructor
-    Module();
-    // Externally defined defaults
-    ~Module();
-    Module(Module&&);
-    Module& operator=(Module&&);
-    // Prevent copying
-    Module(Module const&) = delete;
-    Module& operator=(Module const&) = delete;
+    // Reading a module by parsing an in-memory LLVM IR string.
+    static std::unique_ptr<Module> from_bytes(std::string const & content);
 
     // Construct from an externally created LLVM module
     explicit Module(UPModule&& module);
@@ -54,6 +48,20 @@ class Module
     // Construct with an LLVM IR file (bitcode or disassembled) and entry point
     Module(std::string const& filename, std::string const& entrypoint);
 
+    // Construct in an empty state
+    Module();
+
+    // Externally defined defaults
+    ~Module();
+    Module(Module&&);
+    Module& operator=(Module&&);
+
+    // Prevent copying
+    Module(Module const&) = delete;
+    Module& operator=(Module const&) = delete;
+
+    //// ACCESSORS ////
+
     // Process entry point attributes
     EntryPointAttrs load_entry_point_attrs() const;
 
diff --git a/test/qiree/Module.test.cc b/test/qiree/Module.test.cc
index 145661c..edb93f9 100644
--- a/test/qiree/Module.test.cc
+++ b/test/qiree/Module.test.cc
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@
 //---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
 #include "qiree/Module.hh"
 
+#include <fstream>
+#include <sstream>
+#include <stdexcept>
+#include <string>
+
 #include "qiree_test.hh"
 
 namespace qiree
@@ -109,6 +114,31 @@ TEST_F(ModuleTest, several_gates)
     EXPECT_FALSE(flags.dynamic_result_management);
 }
 
+//---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
+TEST_F(ModuleTest, parse_ir_from_file) {
+
+    // Helper function to read a file and return its contents as a string to be fed into from_bytes
+    auto read_ll_file = [](const std::string& path) -> std::string {
+        std::ifstream file(path);
+        if (!file) throw std::runtime_error("Cannot open file: " + path);
+        std::ostringstream buf;
+        buf << file.rdbuf();
+        return buf.str();
+    };
+
+    // Read the LLVM IR from a file and parse it
+    std::string ir = read_ll_file(this->test_data_path("bell.ll"));
+
+    std::unique_ptr<Module> m;
+    // Expect no exceptions during parsing
+    EXPECT_NO_THROW(m = Module::from_bytes(ir));
+    ASSERT_TRUE(m);
+
+    // Check flags
+    ASSERT_NE(ir.find("!llvm.module.flags"), std::string::npos)
+      << "QIR should contain a !llvm.module.flags metadata node";
+}
+
 //---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
 }  // namespace test
 }  // namespace qiree