How does soil form?

Where there is terrestrial life, soils will form, even in the remote areas like Antarctica. Soils in Scotland are relatively new as, after the retreat of the Ice Age glaciers (around 11,500 years ago), most of Scotland was bare of any soil or vegetation cover. Soils develop by input from both the surface (accumulation of dead vegetation, erosion deposit) and underground (alteration and chemical weathering of the underlying geological material).

Soil types are determined by the nature of the underlying geology, their position in the landscape, climatic factors, plant and organism activities. (soil forming factors ). Human activity has also left an indelible imprint on soils over century and pristine soils are very rare in Scotland.

This combination of factors created variety of soil properties which means that soils not exist as distinct types but form a continuous and always evolving pattern   over the land surface.