Forty eight surface acid soil samples representing coastal region of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka State were characterised for soil acidity. Majority of those soils tested were coarse textured with low CEC and rich in organic matter. Extractable acidity contributed to major portion of CEC and calcium saturation of the soils was low. Among the four different lime requirement methods tested, improved Woodruff buffer method indi­cated very high lime requirement followed by SMP single buffer, Puri's exchangeable cal­cium and SMP double buffer methods. Correlation and multiple regression analysis showed the superiority of Puri's exchangeable calcium method with respect to pH, extractable aci­dity, CEC, organic matter, Ca-saturation and clay. Rate of neutralization of Bacl2-TEA extractable acidity indicated that lime applied to acid soil will come to equilibrium within three weeks and the extractable acidity would be reduced considerably.