Peatlands and the Historic Environment: Guidance for Carrying out Peat Restoration

Published 7 August 2025

This guidance provides advice on the management of peatland restoration projects, with a particular focus on maximising the benefits of these schemes for peatland heritage and ensuring that any peat restoration works are carried out in a way that protects and enhances the historic environment. It describes the various stages of a peatland restoration project and considers the range of information about the historic environment resource that is needed to inform restoration projects before, during and after their execution. This includes investigative and recording techniques that can be applied, and the way in which the historic environment should be fully considered and embedded throughout the complete process.

This advice is relevant to any or all stages of a peat restoration project. It emphasises that close collaboration between natural and historic environment stakeholders is vital to ensure that optimal outcomes of peatland investigations and restoration works are achieved. A particularly important aspect of this is involving historic environment specialists with waterlogged/wetland/peatland archaeological and palaeoenvironmental expertise from the outset.

This guidance will help with formulating such work, and whilst it focuses on peatland restoration in particular, the approaches and methods are applicable to other works impacting peatlands.

Please refer to this guidance as:
Historic England 2025 Peatlands and the Historic Environment: Guidance for Carrying out Peat Restoration. Swindon. Historic England

1. Introduction

Background and context; who the guidance is for; the benefits of collaborative work.
2. Planning the Works

Site identification; building the project partnership; finding experienced contractors and specialists.
3. Assessing the Resource

Desk-based study; field-based techniques; deposit modelling; assessing the state of the preservation of the peat; understanding site hydrogeology.
4. Understanding Impacts and Opportunities (HIA)

Guidance for Carrying out Peat Restoration: Understanding Impacts and Opportunities (HIA)
5. Develop Restoration Proposal and Mitigation Options

Avoiding damage during site works; sustainable peat restoration methods; other ways to reduce risk; mitigation.
6. Carrying Out the Works and Post-work Monitoring

Unexpected discoveries; maintaining sites after restoration works.
7. Reporting and Archiving

Guidance for Carrying out Peat Restoration: Reporting and Archiving
8. Where to Get Advice

Points of contact and data sources.
9. Glossary

Glossary of terms used.
10. References

List of sources referred to.

Acknowledgements

This guidance was compiled by Zoë Hazell and Jim Williams with contributions from Benjamin Gearey, Martin Gillard, Kat Hopwood-Lewis, Paul Linford, Moira Taylor and Claire Tsang.

Also, thanks to the many others who have contributed to this guidance throughout its formulation, directly and indirectly. In particular: Morag Angus, Anna Badcock, Luke Bassnett Barker, Alex Bayliss, Louise Brown, Gill Campbell, Matt Canti, Henry Chapman, Rosie Everett, Michelle Farrell, Hannah Fluck, Ralph Fyfe, Andy Hammon, Jen Heathcote, Joanna Higgins, Tom Hill, Jonathan Last, Peter Marshall, Naomi Oakley, Mark Phillips, Sarah Poppy, Linda Smith, Natalie Ward, Nicki Whitehouse and Elaine Willett.

Image caption for header image: Peatland restoration work taking place. Credit: Jake Stephen

Additional Information

Series: Guidance
Publication Status: Completed
Product Code: HEAG300b

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