Local legend has it a sheepdog named Brin had a habit of 'calling' or howling from this place, supposedly for his recently deceased master, who hanged himself from a tree at nearby Withnell.

The village also lends its name to an important geological feature, the Brinscall Fault, which is orientated approximately north-south and borders the western edge of Anglezarke moor.

The tenant farmers were encouraged to move out when the land was acquired under compulsory purchase order, in 1902, by the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks, which needed to secure a source of pure drinking water.

[9] With its proximity to the West Pennine Moors access land area, residents of Brinscall enjoy hiking, cycling and running routes.

In 2018, the nearby Brinscall Quarry was discovered to have the specific type of stone needed to complete the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, after discovering that the usual place for mining the stone, the Montserrat mountain was beginning to become more fragile the deeper they quarried.