We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won't set optional cookies unless you enable them or accept our recommended settings. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.
Options
Your preferences have been set. If you wish to change your preferences, you may do so on our cookies page.
Smail’s Stationer’s Shop is open every weekend (10.30am–4pm) until Sunday 22 December.
About this place
Oldest working commercial letterpress printers in the UK – a living museum of Victorian history
Try your hand at being an apprentice compositor in the Caseroom.
See our three working printing presses in motion.
Learn how newspapers, tickets, posters and letterheads were printed before the digital age.
Explore Robert Smail’s office, scarcely altered since 1866.
Visit the Smail’s Stationer’s Shop, stocked with cards, postcards, posters, calendars and prints produced using the original Victorian and Edwardian equipment.
In the heart of Innerleithen lies this gem of printing history. Robert Smail’s Printing Works is an operational letterpress printers and an important part of Scotland’s industrial heritage.
Between 1866 and 1986, newspapers, business cards, stationery for local traders and letterheads all passed through the inky presses of this thriving business. The National Trust for Scotland purchased the printing works in 1986 and have kept it as a genuine working printers.
The printing presses, some of which date back to the Victorian era, can be seen in action; shelves of type line the walls, revealing the changing fashions for typefaces; and 52 giant guardbooks showcase almost every item printed by the family firm.
Access to the printing works is by guided tours only and booked via Eventbrite.
