Digital soil maps of Scotland now expanded to include Orkney

“The maps are an excellent educational resource, show the diversity in the Scottish soil resource and form the basis of a wide range of risk maps developed to aid in the sustainable use of our soils”

As part of wide-ranging efforts to provide Scotland’s land managers, agencies and the public with open access resources, the James Hutton Institute has progressively been digitising the published one inch to the mile (1:63,360) and 1:50,000 Soil Survey of Scotland maps, which now cover the Orkney Islands and land south-east of Inverness.

These maps were derived from more detailed 1:25,000 scale field survey, which have provided the basis for these digital maps.

Dr Allan Lilly, principal soil scientist at the Institute’s Environmental and Biochemical Sciences department, said: “This digital map now covers much of the cultivated land in Scotland and some of the adjacent upland areas.

“The new additions were largely completed during the Covid-19 lockdown by a dedicated team led by David Donnelly and including Andrew Nolan and, in particular, Sian Broome who were all working remotely.

“The maps are an excellent educational resource, show the diversity in the Scottish soil resource and form the basis of a wide range of risk maps developed to aid in the sustainable use of our soils.”

The maps are available for download from our Soils@Hutton pages or can be viewed online on the Scotland's Soils website, part of the Scotland's Environment platform.

To learn more about the Institute’s soil maps, visit our Soils Maps of Scotland page.