Formation of the Scottish Soil Database in something related to its current formwas initiated at the Macaulay Institute in 1975, with several studies and surveys resulting in a completed database in 1987 (Brown et al., 1987). This database contained soil profile descriptions and chemical and physical analyses for several thousand sample points in a grid across the country, and includes mineralogical and spectrochemical trace element analyses for a number of these sample points. The data are stored digitally inmultiple subsets, and can be accessed using the Oracle database system. Since 1987, further datasets have been added to the original, with the current database undergoing continuous updating and restructuring to improve data content and access.