Muirburn Licensing

The muirburn licence will be introduced on 1 January 2026. From this point onwards, a licence will be required to carry out muirburn on any land in Scotland. It will be an offence to carry out muirburn without a licence from NatureScot. 

The Muirburn Season

The 2025/26 muirburn season will run from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026. 

From 2026 onwards, the muirburn season will change to 15 September – 31 March.  

For the first year NatureScot will accept that individuals may only have completed the online training (more details below).

Muirburn Training 

Section 12 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 states that a ‘person intending to make muirburn on land to which the licence relates must complete a training course approved under section 13A before making muirburn’. 

Approved course details and training providers are available via the Lantra website: Muirburn Practitioner Foundation Course.

The training course is split into an online module and a practical module.

For 1 January to 31 March 2026, those who carry out muirburn only need to complete the online section and commit to undertaking the practical element. The practical element will be required from 15 September 2026. 

You can now register for the online module

You must provide training evidence for 1 person when applying for a licence. 

This course will be updated once the revised Muirburn Code has been published.

Muirburn Code - Under Revision March 2025

A revised version of the Muirburn Code was introduced by section 18 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024. The consultation stage is now closed. A consultation draft has been prepared in collaboration with stakeholders (the Muirburn Code Working Group).

To view the draft, visit NatureScot’s website: Draft Muirburn Code (March 2025)

For more information visit the Muirburn Licensing pages on the NatureScot website.

Supplementary Information

The collection of supplementary guidance is currently under review and will be published when finalised.

Peat Depth Survey for Muirburn

Identifying areas of peatland and non-peatland is fundamental to applying for a muirburn licence. This is because the licensable purposes are determined by whether an area is or is not peatland. Peatland is defined in Section 22 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 as ‘land where the soil has a layer of peat with a thickness of more than 40 centimetres’.