Robert Smail's Printing Works

Robert Smail's Printing Works on Innerleithen's High Street is the oldest working commercial letterpress printer in Britain, a family firm that printed the local newspaper, posters and letterheads from 1866 until it closed in 1986 and passed, with everything still in place, to the National Trust for Scotland. Guided tours of about 90 minutes take you through the office, scarcely altered since Victorian times with its guard books recording every job, the caseroom where you set your own name in metal type as an apprentice compositor, and the press room where three presses still run. Reviewers give it the highest marks of any Trust place they know, praise the printers' enthusiasm and say you leave with your own printed bookmark. Tips from visitors: entry is by tour only with small groups, so book ahead online; tours run only on certain days in September and October before the winter close; the stationer's shop can be visited without a ticket; and the caseroom is up a flight of stairs.