The site used to be common land, and has seen use in the Bronze Age, during the Early modern European period, when it was harvested for peat, and during the 20th century when it was partly incorporated into an airfield during the Second World War.

[5] Part of the site is labelled as Danes Hill and was thought to have been where the Viking army buried their dead after their defeat at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.

[10] In the 1940s, the south-western edge of the common was utilised by the Royal Air Force as the bomb storage location for the adjacent RAF Riccall airfield.

[11] After the Air Force departed in 1957,[12] the site was rarely used and was subject to being overgrown with Betula (birch trees) as the common was not being actively managed.

The underlying sand is thought to have been deposited during a glacial period when sediment was left here due to retreating ice and the flow of water over the Vale of York.

[24][25] The coal seam is 900 feet (270 m) below the surface and was the subject of test borings in 1909 when the Derwent Valley Light Railway built their line to the east of Skipwith Common.

[26] Skipwith Common has quite a wide area, and off the main paths, it is easy to get lost and trample the undergrowth, thereby disturbing wildlife, so three trails have been developed: According to the JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee), the site can be broken down as follows:[1] Skipwith Common was one of the last places in Britain to have the Northern Mire Moss paludella squarrosa as part of its vegetation (1916), though the plant is believed to be extinct in Britain now.