What is brown soil?

Brown soils, often referred to as brown forest soils or brown earths, are well drained with brownish subsoils where iron oxides created through weathering processes are bonded to silicate clays.
Other properties such as texture and level of fertility depend on the nature of the parent material and the degree of alteration it has undergone. In Scotland, their occurrence is restricted to the warmer, drier climate characteristic of eastern areas but they also occur in sheltered highland glens at lower elevations and on areas of base-rich parent materials. Under natural conditions the soils would form under broadleaf forest which promotes rapid decomposition of plant residue and consequent recycling of plant nutrients.