Can you drill a borehole in your garden?
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Part of our well and borehole water guide
You have the space, and a borehole sounds like a water supply of your own. Can you just book a driller?
Short answer: Possibly, if the rock beneath yields water. The Water Resources Act 1991 requires notice before sinking a well or borehole meant to pass 50 feet in England and Wales, and the British Geological Survey says taking over 20 cubic metres a day needs an abstraction licence. The Survey cannot give permission to drill.
By Andrew Tomlinson, WaterKit · Last reviewed 29 October 2026
The rules decide whether you may drill, but they say nothing about what the water will be like. Once a borehole is yours, nobody publishes a figure for it, and you can check it at your own tap with a 20-in-1 test strip. Our what is a borehole guide explains what one is.
Can you drill a borehole anywhere in your garden?
No, because the rock under your garden decides first and the rules decide second. The British Geological Survey (BGS) says you need an aquifer, a deposit or rock formation that can yield water. The best are generally sandstones, limestones and well-fractured rocks, and mudstones do not typically yield useful supplies. BGS says its GeoIndex and Geology Viewer, free online, show the uppermost geology, and the GeoIndex gives scans of nearby borehole records, but unmapped rocks may lie between and beneath the mapped ones. It also offers a site-specific water borehole prognosis report that evaluates aquifer potential, including yields, water levels and groundwater quality.
On siting, BGS's drilling guidance recommends a minimum of 50 metres between a borehole and any potentially polluting activity, such as septic tanks, fuel tanks, soakaways and slurry pits, and preferably upslope of them. BGS says it cannot give planning information, and that planning questions go to your local authority. In the sources we read, no national rule settled whether a household borehole needs planning permission, so ask your council.
Do you have to tell anyone or get a licence before you drill?
Yes to notice and, above a set volume, yes to a licence. The sources we read cover England, Wales and Scotland. We did not read Northern Ireland's rules for this guide.
- Notice. Section 198 of the Water Resources Act 1991 (England and Wales) requires anyone proposing to sink a well or borehole intended to reach more than 50 feet to give notice to United Kingdom Research and Innovation first. They must also keep a journal of the strata passed through and the levels where water is struck, and send the journal and flow-test details (rate and duration) on completion. Section 93 of the Water (Scotland) Act 1980 sets a similar 50-foot rule. BGS describes the threshold as 15 metres. Where a contractor controls the work, both Acts treat the contractor as the person sinking it, and failing to comply is an offence.
- Abstraction. Section 27 says the licence restriction does not apply to taking up to 20 cubic metres in any 24 hours, unless it is part of a continuous operation or series that adds up to more than that. Section 24 bars building a borehole to take water from strata that need a licence unless a licence authorises it, and breaching it is an offence. Section 27 adds that this construction restriction does not apply to a borehole built for an abstraction within the 20 cubic metre exemption. BGS says above 20 cubic metres a day you apply to the Environment Agency or Natural Resources Wales, and in Scotland it says to consult SEPA about the appropriate application.
Can you drill it yourself?
The sources we read do not say it must be done by a professional, but the legal duties apply to whoever sinks it, and this guide gives no drilling instructions. BGS says that where a contractor is used, depositing the drilling record is the contractor's responsibility. Otherwise it falls on whoever owns the land, or a tenant or occupier. Where the person sinking the borehole is not the occupier, section 198 makes the occupier share the duty to allow access to anyone authorised by UKRI.
BGS gives construction advice as general good practice. For a borehole in superficial deposits, the top few metres should be cased out. For one in bedrock, plain casing should seal off the superficial deposits to at least 5 metres below the top of the bedrock. The casing should be grouted effectively to minimise poor-quality surface or shallow groundwater entering the borehole.
Why might water from your borehole differ from a neighbour's, or from the mains?
Because a borehole supply is yours alone, and no one publishes an area figure for it. The area figure is an average for a mains network. A figure for the area does not tell you what comes out of your own tap, and with a borehole that is truer still. The BGS sources point to reasons the water can vary from one site to the next.
- The rock beneath you. BGS says unmapped rock types may lie between and beneath the mapped ones, and its prognosis report evaluates groundwater quality for a specific site.
- What is nearby. BGS's 50 metre siting advice exists because septic tanks, fuel tanks and soakaways are potential sources of pollution.
- How well it is sealed. BGS says grouted casing minimises poor-quality surface or shallow groundwater entering.
“With a borehole there is no area figure to lean on, so what comes out of your own tap is the only thing worth looking at. The rock beneath you, what sits nearby and how well the casing is sealed can all differ from the neighbour's, so I would check your own tap rather than assume.”
BGS recommends sending a sample taken during the final stages of the pumping test to a reputable laboratory. It says the laboratory, or the council's Environmental Health Officer if you plan a drinking supply, can advise on the analyses, which would normally include pathogenic indicator bacteria, iron, manganese and nitrate. It adds that adequate, well-maintained disinfection treatment would be considered advisable for any supply meant for drinking. A WaterKit strip at your own tap, before and after any treatment, gives our chart reading for some of the same things, such as nitrate, manganese and iron. It does not replace that laboratory analysis.
What happens once it is drilled, and how can you check the water?
It becomes a private supply you look after. BGS says your local council's environmental health department can advise on water quality tests and laboratories. It points to the Drinking Water Inspectorate's website for private supplies in England and Wales, and to the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland. Our well and borehole water guide covers the testing routes.
The WaterKit strip is one way to look at your own tap. Fill a clean glass or cup, dip one strip, wait 30 to 60 seconds and match the pads to the chart, or enter the colours in the free results checker. Our water testing guide has the steps. A strip result is not a legal sample, and it says nothing about the borehole's depth, yield or grouting. The optional bacteria test is a coliform presence screen read after 24 to 48 hours. It is not a count and does not identify E. coli or enterococci. See our guide to testing water for bacteria. The pads below cover three of the analyses on BGS's list, and the readings are our own reading of the chart.
| Pad | What the chart steps allow |
|---|---|
| Nitrate | A step at 50 mg/l, so a reading can indicate whether the water is below, near or above that level |
| Manganese | Steps at 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/l |
| Iron | The first step is 1 mg/l, so a zero means none detected at that first step, not none present, and the pad cannot pick up iron below 1 mg/l |
The area figure for mains water is an average for a network, and nobody publishes one for a borehole, so the rock beneath you, what sits nearby and how well the casing is sealed can all make your tap differ from a neighbour's. The nitrate, manganese and iron pads matter most here, because they cover three of the analyses on BGS's list, and a step up on any of them between one test and the next would indicate that something in your supply has changed and is worth raising with your laboratory or council. Best pack: 20 strips, enough to test the first water and then again at intervals through the first year (our suggestion), £5.99 (or £10.99 with a bacteria test), with free 2nd Class delivery on every order. See the kit
Your borehole drilling questions
How much does a borehole cost?
The sources we read (the Water Resources Act 1991, the Water (Scotland) Act 1980 and two BGS guidance pages) give no price, so we give none of our own. BGS says its site-specific water borehole prognosis report includes recommendations on the design of the proposed borehole.
How much does a borehole cost to run?
We found no running cost in the sources we read. BGS says adequate, well-maintained disinfection treatment would be considered advisable for any supply meant for drinking, but it gives no prices.
How to dig a borehole?
We give no instructions. The Acts place the duties on whoever sinks the borehole, including notice beforehand and a journal sent on completion, and BGS gives casing and grouting advice as good practice.
How do you drill a water well?
The law treats wells and boreholes alike. Section 198 of the Water Resources Act 1991 and section 93 of the Water (Scotland) Act 1980 both cover sinking a well or borehole to search for or abstract water.
How much water can a borehole produce per day?
It depends on the rock, and we found no typical UK figure. BGS says its prognosis report includes yields, and section 198 requires the flow rate and duration of any test to be sent in. The 20 cubic metres a day in section 27 is a licensing line, not a typical yield.
How does a borehole pump work?
The sources we read do not describe pumps. What is a borehole covers the parts.
Sources
- Water Resources Act 1991, section 198 (notice, journal, flow test, contractor, offence; England and Wales), section 27 (20 cubic metres in 24 hours) and section 24 (restrictions on abstraction and on constructing a well or borehole). Undated pages; read 29 October 2026.
- Water (Scotland) Act 1980, section 93 (the 50-foot notice in Scotland, contractor, offence). Undated page; read 29 October 2026.
- British Geological Survey, Drilling legislation and obligations (aquifers, mudstones, GeoIndex, prognosis report, 15 metres, 20 cubic metres a day, cannot give permission or planning information, who deposits the record, council advice on testing). Undated page; read 29 October 2026.
- British Geological Survey, Borehole drilling and deposit guidance (50 metre siting, casing and grouting, laboratory analysis, disinfection). Undated page; read 29 October 2026.
- WaterKit, Water Test Kit (20-in-1 strip, 30 to 60 second read, optional rapid coliform test read after 24 to 48 hours, free 2nd Class delivery on every order) and results checker. The reading of the chart steps is WaterKit's own.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.