500 years of Scottish printing

In 2008, the Trust, togeth­er with the Nation­al Library of Scot­land and Graph­ic Enter­prise Scot­land (now Print Scot­land), cel­e­brat­ed Scot­land’s Year of the print­ed word, mark­ing the 500th anniver­sary of the intro­duc­tion of print­ing to Scot­land. You can see the range of exhi­bi­tions, print­ing demon­stra­tions and work­shops and oth­er events that took place through­out Scot­land, from Shet­land to Dum­fries, and from Argyll to Aberdeen, on the main project page.

Per­ma­nent lega­cies of the cel­e­bra­tions include:

• a plaque placed at the cor­ner of Black­fri­ars Steet and the Cow­gate in Edin­burgh by the City of Edin­burgh Council
• a com­mem­o­ra­tive book, 500 years of print­ing in Scot­land, avail­able through our online shop
• the Nation­al Library of Scot­land’s Spread of Scot­tish Print­ing website
• a digi­tised fac­sim­i­le of the Chep­man and Myl­lar prints pro­duced by the Nation­al Library of Scot­land and the Scot­tish Text Society
• artists Ken­ny Munro and Edward O’Don­nel­ly cre­at­ed an evoca­tive film, From this place words fly, to cel­e­brate Scot­land’s rich print­ing his­to­ry. The project was a part­ner­ship between Nation­al Muse­ums Scot­land and Nation­al Trust for Scot­land. The film includes footage from Scot­tish Screen, Robert Smail’s Print­ing Works at Inner­lei­then and Pow­der­hall Foundry in Edinburgh
• the A K Bell Library in Perth pub­lished a book­let, Trea­sures of the A K Bell Library
• the Nation­al Library of Scot­land, in asso­ci­a­tion with the Sand­stone Press, pub­lished Scot­tish print­ed books by Antony Kamm