Peatland restoration feasibility: how to scope a site before the survey

Your feasibility study for Peatland ACTION is judged against a 27 item list, the Peatland restoration feasibility assessment checklist (NatureScot, undated document). Item 2 holds the depth test that decides eligibility. This guide shows how to estimate the answer, and the survey effort, before you pay for the fieldwork.

Run the numbers for your own bog in the free peatland carbon calculator.

What the feasibility survey has to prove

The survey has to show that enough of the site is peat of the depth your scheme funds. For Peatland ACTION the checklist puts a number on it: "A minimum of 50% of the peat depths recorded on the 100 x 100 m grid within all Assessment Units must be greater than or equal to 30cm for the site to meet Peatland ACTION eligibility requirements."

NatureScot words the test differently in its eligibility criteria (undated page). There, "The majority of the peatland within a project area must have a peat depth of over 50cm, but peat depths down to 30cm will be considered for restoration if they form an intrinsic component of the peat hydrological unit."

The checklist and the eligibility criteria state the test with different depths. Scope against both, and ask your Peatland ACTION project officer which one your application will be read against.

The Peatland Code sets its own floor. The June 2026 clarification gives "30 cm in bogs". Areas between 30 cm and less than 50 cm "shall be part of a restoration project that is predominantly composed of deeper peat areas (50 cm or more)". For fens with a grassland or modified fen baseline the figure is 45 cm.

The Code also removes ground. It defines a continuous shallow area as "three or more peat depth points on a 50 x 50 m grid, connected in any direction that have a peat depth of less than 50cm". For such an area, "the whole area is not eligible". That minor revision took effect on 9 February 2026.

A separate guide covers the evidence a Peatland Code project needs before validation.

Size matters too. NatureScot says: "Generally, we expect projects to be greater than 10 ha with a cost over £10,000." Applications must also "include fully tendered costs including species protection" (Application form and guidance for applicants). That page showed a deadline of 30 September 2026 for starts after 1 April 2027.

How many probe points does a site need?

On a 100 m grid a site needs about one probe point for every hectare. The arithmetic is the site area in square metres divided by the grid spacing squared, so a hectare of 10,000 square metres holds one point.

Both schemes start at that spacing. NatureScot says the survey "is completed on an approximate 100 m by 100 m grid basis" and "should cover the whole area that is restored" (survey guidance). The Code says: "Place a 100 x 100m grid overlay upon the Assessment Unit map. Each intersection of the grid represents a survey point."

The Code then adds points where the peat is thin. The clarification published on 30 June 2026 reads: "when a measurement is less than 50 cm deep, increase the measurement frequency to a 50 x 50m grid around this shallow point by placing intermediate survey points at all eight immediate neighbours of that point."

A shallow neighbour gets its own eight. The rule runs on: "This continues until a complete ring of 50 cm or deeper peat depth points at 50 m spacing fully surrounds the shallow zone on all sides".

A full 50 m grid is four points per hectare. A Code survey therefore sits between one and four points per hectare inside each Assessment Unit, and the shallow ground decides where in that range.

Developers have raised the cost. Papers for the Peatland Code project developer quarterly meeting of 25 September 2025 record that a required point outside an Assessment Unit "would result in additional surveying costs".

What does each scheme ask for at the scoping stage?

Scotland and the Peatland Code publish a depth figure and a grid. The Welsh and English grant pages we opened publish neither, and ask you to show the ground is peat in other ways.

Table sources, checked 10 November 2026. Scotland and the Code: the NatureScot and IUCN UK Peatland Programme documents quoted above. Wales: Natural Resources Wales, Peatland restoration grant 2027. England: GOV.UK, Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, last updated 21 March 2023.

The Welsh round is open now. Natural Resources Wales accepts applications from 1 September 2026 until 23:59 on 30 November 2026, for grants of £10,000 to £250,000. Applicants for survey projects are asked to "be confident that the proposed area is on peat".

In England, Defra said on 15 April 2026 that "we're extending the scheme for a further year until April 2027" (Defra blog). The post describes the extension as serving existing projects.

In Ireland, Peatland Finance Ireland says that "In 2026, a series of pilot projects is testing the Standard in practice" (Peatland Standard for Ireland). Its landing page states no depth threshold, so read its Field protocol V1.1 before you scope an Irish site.

What the public record already shows

Three public records answer part of the question before anyone walks the site. Each is named in NatureScot guidance or published from its own survey database.

• The Carbon and peatland map 2016. The survey guidance directs the depth survey to areas "identified as containing 'carbon and peatland Classes 1-5'". The checklist names the map, with aerial imagery and slope analysis, as an aid to the desk analysis in item 1.
• Earlier probe points. The published Peatland Action peat depth layer holds points "collected across Peatland Action restoration sites on a 100m grid pattern". Check whether your ground, or the ground next to it, is already in it.
• An earlier feasibility study. If a study already covers your area, read it against the current checklist before you commission another.

One detail to settle early is the protocol version. Checklist item 2 asks for a depth survey "in accordance with version 2.0 of the Peatland Code protocol", with caveats. The Code clarifications quoted here are to version 2.1.

If you plan to use one survey for both the grant and the Code, design it to the stricter text. NatureScot notes that the two processes are separate, and that a feasibility study can support Code validation (Peatland ACTION and Peatland Code FAQs, undated page).

Illustrative example

This site is invented. A land agent is scoping a 240 hectare block of open hill in Scotland for a Peatland ACTION application, with a Code project to follow.

The grid comes first. 240 hectares is 2,400,000 square metres. Divided by 100 m times 100 m, that is 240 probe points.

The agent assumes a two person team records 60 points per person-day on this ground. That rate is the agent's own assumption for this example, not a published figure. It gives 240 divided by 60, or 4 person-days.

Suppose the survey returns 150 points at 30 cm or deeper and 108 points over 50 cm. The share at 30 cm or deeper is 150 divided by 240, or 62.5 per cent. That is above the 50 per cent line in the checklist.

The share over 50 cm is 108 divided by 240, or 45 per cent. That is short of "the majority" in the eligibility criteria.

Now redraw the boundary. A 60 hectare margin on the lower slope holds 60 points, of which 12 reach 30 cm and 4 pass 50 cm. Without it the site is 180 points: 138 at 30 cm or deeper (76.7 per cent) and 104 over 50 cm (57.8 per cent).

The Code count comes next. The redrawn site still has 76 readings under 50 cm, and each calls for eight neighbours at 50 m. The Code publishes the rule, not a count. Our estimate from the rule: neighbours are shared, so the ceiling is a full 50 m grid of 180 hectares times 4, or 720 points.

That is up to 540 points beyond the first 180, and up to 9 more person-days at the agent's assumed rate. Any group of three connected shallow points then drops out of the Code project.

The 60 hectare margin cost 60 probe points to find. A boundary drawn at the desk first would have spent them on the eligible peat.

You may be drawing that boundary now. Send us your site and we reply within two working days.

Where to probe first

Probe first where one reading changes the boundary. The checklist counts points "within all Assessment Units", so every hectare you include adds to the total the 50 per cent share is measured against.

• Margins. Start at the edges of the mapped peat, where thin readings are most likely and a boundary is still cheap to move.
• Ground you expect to read 30 to 50 cm. Under the Code each reading there adds eight points, and three connected readings remove the area.
• Ground with restoration work on it. The checklist asks for the dimensions of drains, gullies and hags, so depth there carries the plan.
• Nowhere near services. NatureScot is direct: "Peat probes should never be used near power lines or buried utilities".

Record as the guidance asks. Depth goes down "to the nearest centimetre", with the grid reference, date, sample reference and condition category at each point. NatureScot gives the reason as "the various thresholds (30 cm, 50 cm) for categorising depth".

Plan the photographs too. The checklist asks for photos "from roughly 25% of points". The survey guidance asks for one at each point on sites under 30 hectares, and 10 per cent of points on larger sites.

Vireo Nature reads a site before the survey. The Site Evidence Pack is a desk read of likely peat depth and condition for your site, covering the UK and Ireland. It tells the surveyor where to probe first, and every figure carries its range, its source and its test label.

Tested results are on the Results page. Vireo can also supply the surveys: drone, aerial and ground, including ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry.

What to do next

NatureScot has heard this from applicants. Its feedback summary of February 2025 drew on 34 responses (Peatland ACTION: update and conversation on change). It records: "The requirement for applications to be fully tendered by the application deadline was questioned."

Quick answers

Sources

1. NatureScot: Peatland ACTION, Peatland restoration feasibility assessment checklist, undated document (checked 10 November 2026)
2. NatureScot: Peatland ACTION, Guidance, Eligibility criteria, undated page (checked 10 November 2026)
3. NatureScot: Peatland ACTION, Peat depth and peatland condition survey guidance, recording form and guidance, undated page (checked 10 November 2026)
4. NatureScot: Peatland ACTION, Application form and guidance for applicants, undated page (checked 10 November 2026)
5. NatureScot: Peatland ACTION and Peatland Code frequently asked questions, undated page (checked 10 November 2026)
6. NatureScot: Peatland ACTION, Update and conversation on change to support expansion of peatland restoration in Scotland, October 2024, feedback summary February 2025 (checked 10 November 2026)
7. IUCN UK Peatland Programme: Minor revisions and clarification guidance for Version 2.1 of the Peatland Code, Version 2, June 2026 (checked 10 November 2026)
8. IUCN UK Peatland Programme: Peatland Code Project Developer Quarterly Meeting, agenda and papers, 25 September 2025 (checked 10 November 2026)
9. Scotland's environment web: Peatland Action peat depth point data, dataset updated 2 June 2026 (checked 10 November 2026)
10. Natural Resources Wales: Peatland restoration grant 2027 (checked 10 November 2026)
11. GOV.UK: Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, last updated 21 March 2023 (checked 10 November 2026)
12. Defra: From the Border Mires to Bodmin Moor, restoring England's most vital landscapes, 15 April 2026 (checked 10 November 2026)
13. Peatland Finance Ireland: Peatland Standard for Ireland, undated page (checked 10 November 2026)

Ask the team

Written by the Vireo teamVireo Nature reads land before anyone surveys it. Every figure in our work carries its range, its source and its test.