diff --git a/docs/source/_templates/layout.html b/docs/source/_templates/layout.html
index 81c75a3d306762706c42f27765f4581ad5b4b3e9..791b7cb30cc07c6d8321d0c64ab00b89ebef1bd9 100644
--- a/docs/source/_templates/layout.html
+++ b/docs/source/_templates/layout.html
@@ -49,4 +49,7 @@
 {%- endblock %}
 
 {# Custom CSS overrides #}
+<!-- Overriding style sheets changed in Sphinx >=1.6.1: https://github.com/ryan-roemer/sphinx-bootstrap-theme/blob/master/README.rst#adding-custom-css
+     Later versions of sphinx-theme-bootstrap-theme ignore this value but we keep it so that old versions still work
+ -->
 {% set bootswatch_css_custom = ['_static/custom.css'] %}
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 34096bd1c63377235fade1069c361f94b0b09dbb..be1eb1ab003c88b22776e7b869cb4eefbb3a18c4 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 import sys
 import os
+from sphinx import __version__ as sphinx_version
 import sphinx_bootstrap_theme # checked at cmake time
 import mantid
 from mantid import ConfigService
@@ -16,6 +17,13 @@ sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath(os.path.join('..', 'sphinxext')))
 
 # -- General configuration ------------------------------------------------
 
+if sphinx_version > "1.6":
+    def setup(app):
+        """Called automatically by Sphinx when starting the build process
+        """
+        app.add_stylesheet("custom.css")
+
+
 # Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
 # extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
 # ones.
@@ -139,9 +147,12 @@ html_static_path = ['_static']
 # directly to the root of the documentation.
 #html_extra_path = []
 
-# If true, SmartyPants will be used to convert quotes and dashes to
+# If true, Smart Quotes will be used to convert quotes and dashes to
 # typographically correct entities.
-html_use_smartypants = True
+if sphinx_version < "1.7":
+    html_use_smartypants = True
+else:
+    smartquotes = True
 
 # Hide the Sphinx usage as we reference it on github instead.
 html_show_sphinx = False