About our resources

Information on soils for farmers, crofters and anyone interested in growing food, rearing livestock or other productive uses of land.

As a forestry professional, knowing about your soil and understanding its properties will help you plan and manage your forest more effectively. This webpage will help you find the soil data and information you need.

There is a lot more to soils than their importance as a platform for construction. Soils interact with our environment, helping to maintain clean water and air as well as supporting the green infrastructure in our towns and cities.

Too readily dismissed as ‘dirt’, and usually confined within the boundaries of science, soils offer unlimited possibilities for interdisciplinary learning across the Curriculum for Excellence, including within the contexts of Learning for Sustainability and Health and Wellbeing.

The Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) funds a portfolio of Strategic Research to build a platform of knowledge to strengthen policy and contribute to national outcomes and the Scottish Government's single purpose.

Scotland has a wide variety of different soil types. This is because our soils are created from a wide variety of rocks and sediments by a range of processes controlled by the climate and where the soil sits in the landscape.

Scotland’s soils provide us with many benefits and we need to protect our soils so that they can continue to provide these benefits in future.

Find out about the key characteristics of the main soil types in Scotland. More detailed information can be found in the Scottish soil classification.