Wide variety of woodland and grassland habitats in the Savanna biomes of South Africa, also in Afromontane forests, marshes and on coastal dunes. Marginal intrusion into the Fynbos and Nama-Karoo biomes in the southern parts of its range. Particularly abundant in moist soils near waterbodies, but also found far from surface water provided the substrate is friable and not too rocky, and the soil invertebrate fauna is abundant. Common in gardens, agricultural lands and golf courses; less common in exotic plantations.

This species as presently known is found in South Africa and possibly also Swaziland (but whether the Swaziland specimens represent this species of Amblysomus septentrionalis, or both, awaits confirmation by genetic data). Occurs coastally from the Eastern Cape, in the vicinity of Van Staden's River, northwards to St Lucia district in KwaZulu-Natal. Ranges inland to the foot of the Drakensberg escarpment, from Maclear/Ugie in the south to Van Reenen in the north, possibly with a marginal intrusion into northeastern Free State (Bronner 2013). An apparently isolated subspecies (A. h. meesteri) occurs in the Barberton/Graskop region of Mpumalanga, and likely represents a cryptic species (see taxonomic notes). Previously reported from Lesotho, based on a misidentified specimen (representing Chlorotalpa sclateri); a marginal occurrence in Lesotho in the northern Drakensberg (near Bethlehem) cannot, however, be discounted as species limits and distributions of this taxon and A. septentrionalis await clarification.