There are varieties of pests and peaty soils in the uplands of mountain area in northern England which were developed mainly on sedimentary rocks and glacial drift under the condition of wet and cold climate.The air photo interpretation has been eatentively used in the national small-scale soil mapping programme.It was showed that medium-scale panchromatic prints were used better than colour prints and satellite image for interpretation.In this paper the methodology for soil and land use capacity survey with air photos is described and evaluated.