Buying a building plot in or around Edinburgh? See how the ground falls and what constraints apply before you commit, using the Scottish Government LiDAR flown over the area and published on the Scottish Remote Sensing Portal.
Across the Edinburgh area (36 km² from the OS Open Names extent), open LiDAR covers 100% of the ground. The best survey for most of it is LiDAR for Scotland Phase 5, flown 2021 on a 0.5 m grid.
That survey is about 5 years old. Plots in Edinburgh that have been cleared, filled or built on since then won't show those changes, so the report flags the date at the top of every page and checks for buildings mapped since the flight where it can.
Most of the ground across the area (96% of readings) lies between 4 m and 127.5 m above Ordnance Datum, with a median of 42.6 m. The extremes (-1.4 m to 249.2 m) can include water surfaces and data edges, so we don't quote them as ground levels.
Much of Edinburgh is gently sloping, with steeper banks in places (21.4% over 1 in 10). Two plots a street apart can differ a lot, so the plot-level contours matter more than the town average.
Parts of the area are less than 5 m above Ordnance Datum, so a plot report here also lists whether SEPA's mapped flood extents touch the boundary. That is a map layer, not a flood risk assessment.
Tiles from LiDAR for Scotland Phase 3 (flown 2015–2019); Historic Environment Scotland LiDAR (flown 2010–2017) also overlap the Edinburgh extent, but where surveys overlap the report uses the best one, as above.
Fitting a plane through the 10 m levels, the ground across Edinburgh falls generally towards the north at about 13.3 m per km (roughly 1 in 75). The lowest tenth of the ground lies mostly to the north-east, and the highest tenth lies mostly to the south.
About 35.5% of the 10 m samples are flatter than 1 in 40, while one in ten is steeper than 10.6°.
On SEPA's flood maps (medium likelihood), 3.8% of the Edinburgh extent is inside the river flood extent, 8% inside the surface water extent and 1.9% inside the coastal extent. The extent is a rectangle round the town, so it can take in foreshore, sea and open ground. These are indicative national maps, not a flood risk assessment; a plot report gives the figures for your own boundary.
Historic Environment Scotland has 7989 listed building records in the extent (2253 category A, 4194 category B, 1542 category C), and 13 scheduled monuments, 31 conservation areas and 7 inventory gardens and designed landscapes overlapping it. A plot report lists any that touch or sit near your boundary.
NatureScot protected areas overlapping the extent: Arthur's Seat Volcano (SSSI); Duddingston Loch (SSSI); Firth of Forth (SSSI); Firth of Forth (SPA); Outer Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay Complex (SPA); Firth of Forth (Ramsar site).
0.3% of the extent lies within the Coal Authority's Development High Risk Area (where recorded past coal mining features are present).
Nearest towns with pages here: Loanhead, 8.8 km south, median ground about 105 m higher; Musselburgh, 8.8 km east, median ground about 22 m lower; Dalkeith, 9.9 km south-east, median ground about 22 m higher; Bonnyrigg, 10.2 km south-east, median ground about 56 m higher.
Sampled every 10 m, the typical slope is 2.2°, and 21.4% of the area is steeper than 1 in 10. A single plot can be much flatter or steeper than this. Its report works at 0.5 m.
| Area checked | 36.0 km² (OS Open Names extent, at most 6 km across) |
|---|---|
| LiDAR coverage | 100.0% |
| Best survey | LiDAR for Scotland Phase 5, flown 2021, 0.5 m grid (100.0%); typical ±0.13 m |
| Ground levels | mostly 4.0–127.5 m AOD (2nd–98th percentile), median 42.6 m |
| Slope (10 m sample) | median 2.2°, 90th percentile 10.6°, 21.4% steeper than 1 in 10 |
| Overall fall | towards the north, about 13.3 m per km |
| SEPA flood maps (medium likelihood) | river 3.8%, surface water 8.0%, coastal 1.9% of the extent (awareness only, not a flood risk assessment) |
| HES records in extent | 7989 listed buildings (A 2253, B 4194, C 1542), 13 scheduled monuments, 31 conservation areas, 7 gardens and designed landscapes |
| NatureScot protected areas | 6 |
| Coal Authority high risk area | 0.3% of the extent |
Read from the open LiDAR at a 10 m sample on 2026-10-23; local data checked 2026-10-23. A plot report reads the same data at 0.5 m for your boundary only.
Accuracy. We test Scottish LiDAR against independent survey overlaps and Ordnance Survey levelled trig pillars: heights are ±0.14 m typical on open ground (95% within ±0.28 m). Results by survey phase.
Loanhead · Musselburgh · Dalkeith · Bonnyrigg
Place names and extents: OS Open Names. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. LiDAR: contains Scottish Government LiDAR data, Open Government Licence v3. ©SEPA 2025; this SEPA product is licensed under the Open Government Licence version 3.0. Third-party data attribution statements: https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/5zidnja5/sepa_flood_maps_data_attribution_statements.pdf (SEPA flood maps are indicative and not suitable for individual properties). Contains Historic Environment Scotland and Ordnance Survey data © Historic Environment Scotland - Scottish Charity No. SC045925 © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Open Government Licence v3. Contains NatureScot information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3. Contains Mining Remediation Authority (formerly the Coal Authority) data, Open Government Licence v3. See data licences.