Brimham Rocks has SSSI status because of the value of its geology and the upland woodland and the acidic wet and dry heath habitats that support localised and specialised plant forms, such as chickweed wintergreen, cowberry, bog asphodel and three species of heather.

[2] In the 18th and 19th centuries, antiquarians such as Hayman Rooke wondered whether they could have been at least partly carved by druids,[3] an idea that ran concurrently with the popularity of James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry of 1760, and a developing interest in New-Druidism.

The site was listed for the value of its geology and because the "heath and bog habitats represent important examples of plant communities, formerly more widespread, which have been reduced by agricultural improvement, drainage and afforestation."

Associated with the more well-known rocky outcrops, are birch woodland, acidic bogs, wet and dry heath, and plant communities which thrive when sheltered between the rocks and exposed on the moor.

[13] Brimham Rocks has been described as "a classic geomorphological site, significant for studies of past and present weathering processes and their contribution to landscape evolution."

[1] Although discussion continues around the formation and date of tors such as these throughout Britain, much of the development into the forms displayed at Brimham is likely to have taken place over the last 100,000 years before, during and after the last ice age – the Devensian.

[2] During periods of harsher climate, windblown-ice as well as particles of sand and dust have more effectively eroded weaker layers to give rise to these wind-carved shapes.

[16] After a lecture in 1786,[3] the opinion of the antiquary Hayman Rooke was reported in 1788 with mild scepticism by the Sheffield Register:[17] "The extraordinary position of these rocks is supposed to have been owing to some violent convulsion of nature, but it is evident, we are told, that art has not been wanting to render their situation yet more remarkable.

The Britons having had early communication with the Egyptians and Phoenicians, it is probable, he thinks, that the Latter imparted their arts and religious ceremonies to the Druids, who would politically conceal them from the people, that by means of auguries and divinations, the greater submission might be yielded to their decrees.

To these our author assigns the name of the oracular stone, supposing that hence the crafty Druids might contrive to deliver predictions and commands which the credulous people would receive as proceeding from the rock-deity.

[18] Lewis's 1848 Topographical Dictionary describes the area: "... at Brimham are masses of vast rocks spread in the wildest profusion over a tract of nearly 40 acres, the ancient resort of the Druids".

The Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald quoted from Professor Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire: "The wasting power of the atmosphere is very consipicuous in these rocks; searching out their secret lamination; working perpendicular furrows and horizontal cavities; wearing away the bases, and thus bringing slow but sure destruction on the whole of the exposed masses.

[26] Heather-burning, grazing, management for shooting, and air pollution from industrialisation plus two hundred years of footfall from visitors, has limited biodiversity especially around the rocky outcrop.

[34] The plants on both wet and dry upland heath have developed a requirement for acidic and nutrient-poor soil, which is at least partially affected by underlying layers of Sphagnum moss, or peat.

[2] On 17 February 2018 at Brimham Rocks the Police, the North Yorkshire National Parks and the RSPB launched Operation Owl, "an initiative to tackle the illegal persecution of birds of prey in the county.

[40] At 8.45 pm on 1 June 2018, in "an act of mindless destruction," five youths were observed destroying one of Brimham Rocks' balancing stones by pushing it from its high spot so that it broke on the ground.

[45] In April 1842 several newspapers voiced disappointment that "the appearance of that beautiful spot called Brimham Rocks ... has been greatly injured by the burning off of all the moss &c. with which they were formerly covered."

[48] "The Sheet Anchor mare, whose Jockey was attired in very primitive colours, and flourished a stout ash sapling, took the lead at a furious pace, came tearing past the Grand Stand, amidst loud cries of, Hurrah for Pateley Brig and kept it once round, when the instant he was headed,[nb 5] his cudgel was brought into vigorous play, but all to no purpose, though he belaboured her in true Brimham Rocks style to the very confines of the distance, which he failed to reach in time.

In May 2000 he had smoked cannabis with her, "bludgeoned and stabbed" her to death, left her in a bath for some days, dismembered her, then buried her body at a secret location at Brimham Rocks for fourteen years.

His "Balancing Act" is carved into a stone artwork of the same name created by artist Adrian Riley and stonemason Richard Dawson erected at the rocks in June 2023.

In 1838, Rock House provided "tea, coffee or luncheon ... lemonade, ginger beer and cigars ... hay, corn and good stabling for horses," plus the use of a telescope.

[60] J.R. Walbran (1849) described them as "an original couple, who, for the customary remuneration, regale all comers with tea, coffee, and refreshments, in such Yorkshire style, as many of our fair southern friends will not readily forget.

In 1928 they caused some embarrassment by charging the Bishop of Ripon and his congregation sixpence per head to attend a service at the Rocks, without the knowledge of Sir William Aykroyd who owned the land.

The following is an extract:[78] Suddenly, on the horizon's distant line, Uprising, as by call of magic power The farewell sunbeams on the sky define Black shapes of battlement, and spire and tower.

Both the Sublime and Romanticism are reflected in this 1843 report of an autumn ramble at Brimham Rocks:[24] "It is impossible to convey an idea of the wild rude grandeur of the scene.

On Wednesday 14 June 1848, the large party arrived with guides John Richard Walbran and Mr Harrison of Ripon, who brought not just "antiquarian and topographical knowledge," but also "taste."

[79] The Manchester Courier commented that, "The motley group listened with interest and intelligence; and possibly even this handful of corn on the top of the mountain may be the seed of new institutes, which may train up yet unborn communities in the paths of knowledge and virtue.

With the coming of the railways and a rail station at Dacre in 1862, visitors during the Season at Harrogate spa could more easily take excursions to Brimham Rocks, so tourist numbers increased.

[90] Local climbers Robin and Tony Barley were putting up new routes for ten years or more until the 1970s, being regularly chased off the rocks by the warden, on the grounds of unpaid entrance fees.

Other SSSIs in this area of North Yorkshire are: Bishop Monkton Ings,[103] Cow Myers,[104] Farnham Mires,[105] Hack Fall Wood,[106] Hay-a-Park,[107] Kirk Deighton[108] Mar Field Fen,[109] Quarry Moor,[110] and Ripon Parks.