diff --git a/src/attributes.jl b/src/attributes.jl
index 9af867dd1..0c683224a 100644
--- a/src/attributes.jl
+++ b/src/attributes.jl
@@ -173,13 +173,8 @@ end
 function write_attribute(attr::Attribute, memtype::Datatype, str::AbstractString)
     strbuf = Base.cconvert(Cstring, str)
     GC.@preserve strbuf begin
-        if API.h5t_is_variable_str(memtype)
-            ptr = Base.unsafe_convert(Cstring, strbuf)
-            write_attribute(attr, memtype, Ref(ptr))
-        else
-            ptr = Base.unsafe_convert(Ptr{UInt8}, strbuf)
-            write_attribute(attr, memtype, ptr)
-        end
+        buf = Base.unsafe_convert(Ptr{UInt8}, strbuf)
+        write_attribute(attr, memtype, buf)
     end
 end
 function write_attribute(
diff --git a/test/attributes.jl b/test/attributes.jl
index f94b97cf9..b2a710289 100644
--- a/test/attributes.jl
+++ b/test/attributes.jl
@@ -69,14 +69,3 @@ end
         close(f)
     end
 end
-
-
-@testset "variable length strings" begin
-    filename = tempname()
-    h5open(filename, "w") do f
-        # https://github.com/JuliaIO/HDF5.jl/issues/1129
-        attr = create_attribute(f, "attr-name", datatype(String), dataspace(String))
-        write_attribute(attr, datatype(String), "attr-value")
-        @test attrs(f)["attr-name"] == "attr-value"
-    end
-end
\ No newline at end of file