Quarry Moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, at the south edge of Ripon, North Yorkshire, England, and adjacent to the A61 road.

The land was donated in 1945 to the people of Ripon by the town's mayor, Alderman Thomas Fowler Spence, a varnish manufacturer.

Sediments from the tropical Zechstein Sea ultimately became the Magnesian Limestone outcrop of north-east England, part of which is exposed here.

[5] In September 1943, following the "use of land for army training," botanist George Taylor reported: "Serious disturbance has been observed on Quarry Moor ... where last year Spiranthes spiralis Koch [or lady's tresses orchid] occurred in some quantity and the reappearance of this very local species on this site is problematical."

"[11] Thomas Fowler Spence (1878–1949)[12][13] lived at Red Hills Grange, was Mayor of Ripon between 1927 and 1929, and was managing director of T.R.

[20] The others are Bishop Monkton Ings,[21] Brimham Rocks,[22] Cow Myers,[23] Farnham Mires,[24] Hack Fall Wood,[25] Hay-a-Park,[26] Kirk Deighton[27] Mar Field Fen,[28] and Ripon Parks.

For example, there are various herbs: common spotted-orchid, great burnet, restharrow, marjoram, cowslip, hay rattle, greater burnet-saxifrage, basil, cross-wort, ox-eye daisy, knapweed, self-heal, lady's bedstraw, bird's-foot trefoil[17][33] and primrose,[2] all growing alongside slender false-broom and false-oat grass.

[17] Quarry Moor's scrub provides a breeding site for whitethroat and willow warbler, summer visitors from Africa.

Insects breeding onsite include the brimstone butterfly, and the six-spot burnet moth, whose food plant is bird's-foot trefoil.

Maintenance of this section is needed to prevent the growth of rank grass and scrub, which would eventually dominate the area and affect the site's biodiversity.

Light winter grazing is recommended, to prevent the dominance of scrub, and to achieve a "diverse mosaic of tall and short vegetation" in order to support biodiversity.

Thus traditional hay cutting is carried out, and the grassland is grazed by ponies, cattle and native sheep such as Hebrideans.