This page is no longer updated. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute joined forces with SCRI on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute.
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The soils of the machair are quite variable in nature.
However, all the soils have an alkaline pH because of the high proportion of shell fragments in the underlying sands.
Crofters have recognised that care has to be taken when deciding how to manage machair soils.