diff --git a/.env b/.env
index d9f875a4d45..ab2e4b4fbe7 100644
--- a/.env
+++ b/.env
@@ -71,12 +71,12 @@ NUMBA=latest
 NUMPY=latest
 PANDAS=latest
 PYTHON=3.8
-R=4.2
+R=4.4
 SPARK=master
 TURBODBC=latest
 
-# These correspond to images on Docker Hub that contain R, e.g. rhub/ubuntu-gcc-release:latest
-R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release
+# These correspond to images on Docker Hub that contain R, e.g. rhub/ubuntu-release:latest
+R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release
 R_ORG=rhub
 R_TAG=latest
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/r.yml b/.github/workflows/r.yml
index 05c85fa6dc2..8228aaad7ce 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/r.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/r.yml
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        r: ["4.3"]
+        r: ["4.4"]
         ubuntu: [20.04]
         force-tests: ["true"]
     env:
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         config:
-          - { org: "rhub", image: "debian-gcc-devel", tag: "latest", devtoolset: "" }
+          - { org: "rhub", image: "ubuntu-gcc12", tag: "latest", devtoolset: "" }
     env:
       R_ORG: ${{ matrix.config.org }}
       R_IMAGE: ${{ matrix.config.image }}
diff --git a/ci/docker/linux-apt-docs.dockerfile b/ci/docker/linux-apt-docs.dockerfile
index 76b5ae6f143..ec424b4e6ea 100644
--- a/ci/docker/linux-apt-docs.dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/linux-apt-docs.dockerfile
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 ARG base
 FROM ${base}
 
-ARG r=4.2
+ARG r=4.4
 ARG jdk=8
 
 # See R install instructions at https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/
diff --git a/ci/docker/linux-apt-lint.dockerfile b/ci/docker/linux-apt-lint.dockerfile
index 2b94a488718..9ec80440a3c 100644
--- a/ci/docker/linux-apt-lint.dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/linux-apt-lint.dockerfile
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     && apt-get clean \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-ARG r=4.2
+ARG r=4.4
 RUN wget -qO- https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/marutter_pubkey.asc | \
         tee -a /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/cran_ubuntu_key.asc && \
     # NOTE: Only R >= 4.0 is available in this repo
diff --git a/ci/docker/linux-apt-r.dockerfile b/ci/docker/linux-apt-r.dockerfile
index d93732abb00..a68354e3abf 100644
--- a/ci/docker/linux-apt-r.dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/linux-apt-r.dockerfile
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ ENV LANG=C.UTF-8
 # Build R
 # [1] https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-r-on-ubuntu-18-04
 # [2] https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-r-on-ubuntu-18-04/#installing-r-packages-from-cran
-ARG r=3.6
+ARG r=4.4
 RUN apt-get update -y && \
     apt-get install -y \
         dirmngr \
diff --git a/ci/etc/valgrind-cran.supp b/ci/etc/valgrind-cran.supp
index 4d292202608..e93c2a3465f 100644
--- a/ci/etc/valgrind-cran.supp
+++ b/ci/etc/valgrind-cran.supp
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 # under the License.
 
 {
-   # `testthat::skip()`s cause a valgrind error that does not show up on CRAN. 
+   # `testthat::skip()`s cause a valgrind error that does not show up on CRAN.
    <testthat_skip_error>
    Memcheck:Cond
    fun:gregexpr_Regexc
@@ -32,3 +32,21 @@
    fun:getvar
    fun:bcEval
 }
+{
+   # This also doesn't seem to cause issues on CRAN, so suppress it.
+   <Memcheck_possible_leak>
+   Memcheck:Leak
+   match-leak-kinds: possible
+   fun:malloc
+   fun:libdeflate_alloc_compressor
+   fun:do_memCompress
+   fun:bcEval_loop
+   fun:bcEval
+   fun:Rf_eval
+   fun:R_execClosure
+   fun:applyClosure_core
+   fun:Rf_applyClosure
+   fun:Rf_eval
+   fun:do_set
+   fun:Rf_eval
+}
diff --git a/ci/scripts/r_sanitize.sh b/ci/scripts/r_sanitize.sh
index 600ee0fa2cb..f7ed07f0c86 100755
--- a/ci/scripts/r_sanitize.sh
+++ b/ci/scripts/r_sanitize.sh
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ export UBSAN_OPTIONS="print_stacktrace=1,suppressions=/arrow/r/tools/ubsan.supp"
 
 # run tests
 pushd tests
-${R_BIN} < testthat.R > testthat.out 2>&1 || { cat testthat.out; exit 1; }
+${R_BIN} --no-save < testthat.R > testthat.out 2>&1 || { cat testthat.out; exit 1; }
 
 cat testthat.out
 if grep -q "runtime error" testthat.out; then
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ fi
 
 # run examples
 popd
-${R_BIN} -e 'library(arrow); testthat::test_examples(".")' >> examples.out 2>&1 || { cat examples.out; exit 1; }
+${R_BIN} --no-save -e 'library(arrow); testthat::test_examples(".")' >> examples.out 2>&1 || { cat examples.out; exit 1; }
 
 cat examples.out
 if grep -q "runtime error" examples.out; then
diff --git a/ci/scripts/r_test.sh b/ci/scripts/r_test.sh
index 72078ab3c06..95a49ee83a7 100755
--- a/ci/scripts/r_test.sh
+++ b/ci/scripts/r_test.sh
@@ -46,7 +46,12 @@ if [ "$ARROW_USE_PKG_CONFIG" != "false" ]; then
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${ARROW_HOME}/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
   export R_LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
 fi
-export _R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_=${ARROW_R_CXXFLAGS}
+
+export _R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_="${_R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_} ${ARROW_R_CXXFLAGS}"
+# These should generally be picked up, but are slightly wrong in rhub's containers it appears
+# https://github.com/r-hub/containers/pull/63
+export _R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_="${_R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_} -Wno-parentheses -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3"
+
 if [ "$ARROW_R_DEV" = "TRUE" ]; then
   # These are sometimes used in the Arrow C++ build and are not a problem
   export _R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_="${_R_CHECK_COMPILATION_FLAGS_KNOWN_} -Wno-attributes -msse4.2 -Wno-noexcept-type -Wno-subobject-linkage"
diff --git a/ci/scripts/r_valgrind.sh b/ci/scripts/r_valgrind.sh
index a14cb803ca8..0e40d792111 100755
--- a/ci/scripts/r_valgrind.sh
+++ b/ci/scripts/r_valgrind.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ ${R_BIN} CMD INSTALL ${INSTALL_ARGS} arrow*.tar.gz
 pushd tests
 
 # to generate suppression files run:
-# ${R_BIN} --vanilla -d "valgrind --tool=memcheck --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes --gen-suppressions=all --log-file=memcheck.log" -f testthat.supp
+# ${R_BIN} --vanilla -d "valgrind --tool=memcheck --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes --gen-suppressions=all --log-file=memcheck.log" -f testthat.R
 ${R_BIN} --vanilla -d "valgrind --tool=memcheck --leak-check=full --track-origins=yes --suppressions=/${1}/ci/etc/valgrind-cran.supp" -f testthat.R |& tee testthat.out
 
 # valgrind --error-exitcode=1 should return an erroring exit code that we can catch,
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
index 804f0d21270..086705dbb9c 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ jobs:
         config:
         # We use the R version that was released at the time of the arrow release in order
         # to make sure we can download binaries from RSPM.
+        - { old_arrow_version: '14.0.2.1', r: '4.3' }
+        - { old_arrow_version: '13.0.0.1', r: '4.3' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '12.0.1.1', r: '4.3' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '11.0.0.3', r: '4.2' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '10.0.1', r: '4.2' }
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.offline.build.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.offline.build.yml
index 7a747ac4800..9ac0ebc4083 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.offline.build.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.offline.build.yml
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ jobs:
         {{ macros.github_set_sccache_envvars()|indent(8)}}
         run: |
           cd arrow/r
-          R CMD INSTALL --install-tests --no-test-load --no-docs --no-help --no-byte-compile arrow_with_deps.tar.gz
+          R CMD INSTALL --install-tests --no-test-load --no-byte-compile arrow_with_deps.tar.gz
       - name: Run the tests
         run: R -e 'if(tools::testInstalledPackage("arrow") != 0L) stop("There was a test failure.")'
       - name: Dump test logs
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
index 48093e9fd5b..753efe61d04 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
@@ -30,9 +30,9 @@ jobs:
         r_version:
           # We test devel, release, and oldrel in regular CI.
           # This is for older versions
-          - "3.6"
           - "4.0"
           - "4.1"
+          - "4.2"
     env:
       R_ORG: "rstudio"
       R_IMAGE: "r-base"
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.packages.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.packages.yml
index 2979f57bb61..9ca7e59a957 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.packages.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.packages.yml
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ jobs:
            working-directory: 'arrow'
            extra-packages: cpp11
       - name: Set CRAN like openssl
-        if: contains(matrix.platform.runs_on, 'arm64')
+        if: contains(matrix.platform.name, 'arm64')
         run: |
           # The arm64 runners contain openssl 1.1.1t in this path that is always included first so we need to override the
           # default setting of the brew --prefix as root dir to avoid version conflicts.
@@ -300,16 +300,14 @@ jobs:
           # an OS that is not in the allowlist, so we have to opt-in to use the
           # binary. Other env vars used in r_docker_configure.sh can be added
           # here (like devtoolset) and wired up in the later steps.
-          - {image: "rhub/debian-clang-devel", libarrow_binary: "TRUE"}
+          - {image: "rhub/ubuntu-clang", libarrow_binary: "TRUE"}
           # fedora-clang-devel cannot use binaries bc of libc++ (uncomment to see the error)
           # - {image: "rhub/fedora-clang-devel", libarrow_binary: "TRUE"}
-          - {image: "rhub/ubuntu-gcc-release"} # currently ubuntu-20.04 (focal)
-          - {image: "rocker/r-ubuntu:22.04"} # openssl3
-          - {image: "rocker/r-ver"} # whatever is latest ubuntu LTS
+          - {image: "rhub/ubuntu-release"} # currently ubuntu-22.04
           - {image: "rocker/r-ver:4.0.0"} # ubuntu-20.04
-          - {image: "rocker/r-ver:3.6.3", libarrow_binary: "TRUE"} # debian:buster (10)
           - {image: "rstudio/r-base:4.1-focal"} # ubuntu-20.04
           - {image: "rstudio/r-base:4.2-centos7", devtoolset: "8"}
+          - {image: "rstudio/r-base:4.3-noble"}
     steps:
       # Get the arrow checkout just for the docker config scripts
       # Don't need submodules for this (hence false arg to macro): they fail on
diff --git a/dev/tasks/tasks.yml b/dev/tasks/tasks.yml
index 3e7f7ea0c43..52a235c688e 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/tasks.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/tasks.yml
@@ -888,12 +888,12 @@ tasks:
       - r-lib__libarrow__bin__darwin-arm64-openssl-3.0__arrow-{no_rc_r_version}\.zip
       - r-lib__libarrow__bin__darwin-x86_64-openssl-1.1__arrow-{no_rc_r_version}\.zip
       - r-lib__libarrow__bin__darwin-x86_64-openssl-3.0__arrow-{no_rc_r_version}\.zip
+      - r-pkg__bin__windows__contrib__4.4__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.zip
       - r-pkg__bin__windows__contrib__4.3__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.zip
-      - r-pkg__bin__windows__contrib__4.2__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.zip
+      - r-pkg__bin__macosx__big-sur-x86_64__contrib__4.4__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tgz
       - r-pkg__bin__macosx__big-sur-x86_64__contrib__4.3__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tgz
-      - r-pkg__bin__macosx__contrib__4.2__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tgz
+      - r-pkg__bin__macosx__big-sur-arm64__contrib__4.4__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tgz
       - r-pkg__bin__macosx__big-sur-arm64__contrib__4.3__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tgz
-      - r-pkg__bin__macosx__big-sur-arm64__contrib__4.2__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tgz
       - r-pkg__src__contrib__arrow_{no_rc_r_version}\.tar\.gz
 
 
@@ -1356,7 +1356,7 @@ tasks:
       r_tag: latest
       r_custom_ccache: true
 
-{% for r_org, r_image, r_tag in [("rhub", "ubuntu-gcc-release", "latest"),
+{% for r_org, r_image, r_tag in [("rhub", "ubuntu-release", "latest"),
                                  ("rocker", "r-ver", "latest"),
                                  ("rstudio", "r-base", "4.2-focal"),
                                  ("rstudio", "r-base", "4.1-opensuse153")] %}
@@ -1377,9 +1377,9 @@ tasks:
     template: r/azure.linux.yml
     params:
       r_org: rhub
-      r_image: debian-gcc-devel-lto
+      r_image: gcc13
       r_tag: latest
-      flags: '-e NOT_CRAN=false -e INSTALL_ARGS=--use-LTO'
+      flags: '-e INSTALL_ARGS=--use-LTO'
 
   # This one has -flto=auto
   test-r-ubuntu-22.04:
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 60edf1420bc..d771fc2d22a 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1459,8 +1459,8 @@ services:
     # (including building the C++ library) on any Docker image that contains R
     #
     # Usage:
-    #   R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose build r
-    #   R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose run r
+    #   R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose build r
+    #   R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose run r
     image: ${REPO}:r-${R_ORG}-${R_IMAGE}-${R_TAG}
     build:
       context: .
@@ -1523,6 +1523,7 @@ services:
       cache_from:
         - ${REPO}:r-rhub-fedora-clang-devel-latest
       args:
+        # TODO: change this to rhub/clang-asan
         base: rhub/fedora-clang-devel-san
         r_dev: ${ARROW_R_DEV}
         devtoolset_version: ${DEVTOOLSET_VERSION}
diff --git a/r/DESCRIPTION b/r/DESCRIPTION
index eeff8168b36..38cbaa94a3c 100644
--- a/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Description: 'Apache' 'Arrow' <https://arrow.apache.org/> is a cross-language
     language-independent columnar memory format for flat and hierarchical data,
     organized for efficient analytic operations on modern hardware. This
     package provides an interface to the 'Arrow C++' library.
-Depends: R (>= 3.4)
+Depends: R (>= 4.0)
 License: Apache License (>= 2.0)
 URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/, https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/
 BugReports: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues
diff --git a/r/R/dplyr-funcs-type.R b/r/R/dplyr-funcs-type.R
index f244682737c..efb3c6b756a 100644
--- a/r/R/dplyr-funcs-type.R
+++ b/r/R/dplyr-funcs-type.R
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ register_bindings_type_cast <- function() {
              fix.empty.names = TRUE,
              stringsAsFactors = FALSE) {
       # we need a specific value of stringsAsFactors because the default was
-      # TRUE in R <= 3.6
+      # TRUE in R <= 3.6 and folks might still be cargoculting to stay in the past.
       if (!identical(stringsAsFactors, FALSE)) {
         arrow_not_supported("stringsAsFactors = TRUE")
       }
diff --git a/r/R/util.R b/r/R/util.R
index a7cb5b3792d..14e4544ab1e 100644
--- a/r/R/util.R
+++ b/r/R/util.R
@@ -15,20 +15,6 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-# for compatibility with R versions earlier than 4.0.0
-if (!exists("deparse1")) {
-  deparse1 <- function(expr, collapse = " ", width.cutoff = 500L, ...) {
-    paste(deparse(expr, width.cutoff, ...), collapse = collapse)
-  }
-}
-
-# for compatibility with R versions earlier than 3.6.0
-if (!exists("str2lang")) {
-  str2lang <- function(s) {
-    parse(text = s, keep.source = FALSE)[[1]]
-  }
-}
-
 oxford_paste <- function(x,
                          conjunction = "and",
                          quote = TRUE,
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R
index bb005605de3..98068bdea20 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R
@@ -818,11 +818,6 @@ test_that("Handling string data with embedded nuls", {
   )
   array_with_nul <- arrow_array(raws)$cast(utf8())
 
-  # The behavior of the warnings/errors is slightly different with and without
-  # altrep. Without it (i.e. 3.5.0 and below, the error would trigger immediately
-  # on `as.vector()` where as with it, the error only happens on materialization)
-  skip_on_r_older_than("3.6")
-
   # no error on conversion, because altrep laziness
   v <- expect_error(as.vector(array_with_nul), NA)
 
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-RecordBatch.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-RecordBatch.R
index f29b75dbf40..5987f5a4b7c 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-RecordBatch.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-RecordBatch.R
@@ -595,14 +595,10 @@ test_that("RecordBatch supports cbind", {
   )
 
   # Rejects Table and ChunkedArray arguments
-  if (getRversion() >= "4.0.0") {
-    # R 3.6 cbind dispatch rules cause cbind to fall back to default impl if
-    # there are multiple arguments with distinct cbind implementations
-    expect_error(
-      cbind(record_batch(a = 1:2), arrow_table(b = 3:4)),
-      regexp = "Cannot cbind a RecordBatch with Tables or ChunkedArrays"
-    )
-  }
+  expect_error(
+    cbind(record_batch(a = 1:2), arrow_table(b = 3:4)),
+    regexp = "Cannot cbind a RecordBatch with Tables or ChunkedArrays"
+  )
   expect_error(
     cbind(record_batch(a = 1:2), b = chunked_array(1, 2)),
     regexp = "Cannot cbind a RecordBatch with Tables or ChunkedArrays"
@@ -622,10 +618,6 @@ test_that("Handling string data with embedded nuls", {
   batch_with_nul <- record_batch(a = 1:5, b = raws)
   batch_with_nul$b <- batch_with_nul$b$cast(utf8())
 
-  # The behavior of the warnings/errors is slightly different with and without
-  # altrep. Without it (i.e. 3.5.0 and below, the error would trigger immediately
-  # on `as.vector()` where as with it, the error only happens on materialization)
-  skip_on_r_older_than("3.6")
   df <- as.data.frame(batch_with_nul)
 
   expect_error(
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-Table.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-Table.R
index ce3254a158e..f6cec3b2b76 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-Table.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-Table.R
@@ -581,10 +581,6 @@ test_that("Table supports cbind", {
 })
 
 test_that("cbind.Table handles record batches and tables", {
-  # R 3.6 cbind dispatch rules cause cbind to fall back to default impl if
-  # there are multiple arguments with distinct cbind implementations
-  skip_if(getRversion() < "4.0.0", "R 3.6 cbind dispatch rules prevent this behavior")
-
   expect_equal(
     cbind(arrow_table(a = 1L:2L), record_batch(b = 4:5)),
     arrow_table(a = 1L:2L, b = 4:5)
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-altrep.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-altrep.R
index 7a66d0e7782..50bd40988e5 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-altrep.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-altrep.R
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-skip_on_r_older_than("3.6")
-
 test_that("altrep test functions do not include base altrep", {
   expect_false(is_arrow_altrep(1:10))
   expect_identical(test_arrow_altrep_is_materialized(1:10), NA)
@@ -373,6 +371,11 @@ test_that("altrep min/max/sum identical to R versions for double", {
   expect_altrep_roundtrip(x, max)
   expect_altrep_roundtrip(x, sum)
 
+  # On valgrind the NA_real_ is sometimes transformed to NaN
+  # https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2021-April/080683.html
+  # so we skip these there to avoid complicated NA == NaN logic,
+  # and they are tested on a number of other platforms / conditions
+  skip_on_linux_devel()
   x <- c(1, 2, NA_real_)
   expect_altrep_roundtrip(x, min, na.rm = TRUE)
   expect_altrep_roundtrip(x, max, na.rm = TRUE)
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-chunked-array.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-chunked-array.R
index 223f5022d3b..bb01df427f7 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-chunked-array.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-chunked-array.R
@@ -475,11 +475,6 @@ test_that("Handling string data with embedded nuls", {
   )
   chunked_array_with_nul <- ChunkedArray$create(raws)$cast(utf8())
 
-  # The behavior of the warnings/errors is slightly different with and without
-  # altrep. Without it (i.e. 3.5.0 and below, the error would trigger immediately
-  # on `as.vector()` where as with it, the error only happens on materialization)
-  skip_on_r_older_than("3.6")
-
   v <- expect_error(as.vector(chunked_array_with_nul), NA)
 
   expect_error(
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-collapse.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-collapse.R
index a8aa5556f1e..f50fa8945db 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-collapse.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-collapse.R
@@ -185,16 +185,6 @@ See $.data for the source Arrow object",
     fixed = TRUE
   )
 
-  skip_if(getRversion() < "3.6.0", "TODO investigate why these aren't equal")
-  # On older R versions:
-  #  ── Failure (test-dplyr-collapse.R:172:3): Properties of collapsed query ────────
-  # head(q, 1) %>% collect() not equal to tibble::tibble(lgl = FALSE, total = 8L, extra = 40).
-  # Component "total": Mean relative difference: 0.3846154
-  # Component "extra": Mean relative difference: 0.3846154
-  # ── Failure (test-dplyr-collapse.R:176:3): Properties of collapsed query ────────
-  # tail(q, 1) %>% collect() not equal to tibble::tibble(lgl = NA, total = 25L, extra = 125).
-  # Component "total": Mean relative difference: 0.9230769
-  # Component "extra": Mean relative difference: 0.9230769
   expect_equal(
     q %>%
       arrange(lgl) %>%
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-datetime.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-datetime.R
index 4d3226798d3..6f520f6e322 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-datetime.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-datetime.R
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ test_that("strptime", {
   )
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   compare_dplyr_binding(
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ test_that("strptime works for individual formats", {
   skip_on_cran()
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   expect_equal(
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ test_that("timestamp round trip correctly via strftime and strptime", {
   skip_on_cran()
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   tz <- "Pacific/Marquesas"
@@ -291,7 +291,9 @@ test_that("timestamp round trip correctly via strftime and strptime", {
 
   # Some formats are not supported on Windows
   if (!tolower(Sys.info()[["sysname"]]) == "windows") {
-    formats <- c(formats, "%a", "%A", "%b", "%B", "%OS", "%I%p", "%r", "%T%z")
+    # "%r" could also be here, though it is only valid in some locales (those
+    # that use 12 hour formats, so skip for now)
+    formats <- c(formats, "%a", "%A", "%b", "%B", "%OS", "%I%p", "%T%z")
   }
 
   for (fmt in formats) {
@@ -2080,7 +2082,7 @@ test_that("as_datetime() works with other functions", {
 
 test_that("parse_date_time() works with year, month, and date components", {
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
   compare_dplyr_binding(
     .input %>%
@@ -2139,7 +2141,7 @@ test_that("parse_date_time() works with year, month, and date components", {
 
 test_that("parse_date_time() works with a mix of formats and orders", {
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
   test_df <- tibble(
     string_combi = c("2021-09-1", "2/09//2021", "09.3.2021")
@@ -2169,7 +2171,7 @@ test_that("year, month, day date/time parsers", {
   )
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
   compare_dplyr_binding(
     .input %>%
@@ -2221,7 +2223,7 @@ test_that("ym, my & yq parsers", {
   )
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
   compare_dplyr_binding(
     .input %>%
@@ -2270,7 +2272,7 @@ test_that("ym, my & yq parsers", {
 
 test_that("parse_date_time's other formats", {
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   compare_dplyr_binding(
@@ -2401,7 +2403,7 @@ test_that("lubridate's fast_strptime", {
   )
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   compare_dplyr_binding(
@@ -2508,7 +2510,7 @@ test_that("parse_date_time with hours, minutes and seconds components", {
   # the unseparated strings are versions of "1987-08-22 20:13:59" (with %y)
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   compare_dplyr_binding(
@@ -2638,7 +2640,7 @@ test_that("parse_date_time with month names and HMS", {
   skip_on_os("windows")
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6 & the minimal nightly builds)
+  # RE2 library (not available in the minimal nightly builds)
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   test_dates_times2 <- tibble(
@@ -2737,7 +2739,7 @@ test_that("parse_date_time with `quiet = FALSE` not supported", {
   # https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-17146
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6 & the minimal nightly builds)
+  # RE2 library (not available in the minimal nightly builds)
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   expect_warning(
@@ -2766,7 +2768,7 @@ test_that("parse_date_time with `quiet = FALSE` not supported", {
 
 test_that("parse_date_time with truncated formats", {
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
 
   test_truncation_df <- tibble(
@@ -2853,7 +2855,7 @@ test_that("parse_date_time with `exact = TRUE`, and with regular R objects", {
   )
 
   # these functions' internals use some string processing which requires the
-  # RE2 library (not available on Windows with R 3.6)
+  # RE2 library
   skip_if_not_available("re2")
   compare_dplyr_binding(
     .input %>%
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-type.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-type.R
index 2624e16156b..ecb6b3b7b45 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-type.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-funcs-type.R
@@ -754,11 +754,10 @@ test_that("structs/nested data frames/tibbles can be created", {
   )
 
   # check that data.frame is mapped too
-  # stringsAsFactors default is TRUE in R 3.6, which is still tested on CI
   compare_dplyr_binding(
     .input %>%
       transmute(
-        df_col = data.frame(regular_col1, regular_col2, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
+        df_col = data.frame(regular_col1, regular_col2)
       ) %>%
       collect() %>%
       mutate(df_col = as.data.frame(df_col)),
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-glimpse.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-glimpse.R
index c93273bdeef..d39fef9e82c 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-glimpse.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-glimpse.R
@@ -15,11 +15,6 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-# The glimpse output for tests with `example_data` is different on R < 3.6
-# because the `lgl` column is generated with `sample()` and the RNG
-# algorithm is different in older R versions.
-skip_on_r_older_than("3.6")
-
 library(dplyr, warn.conflicts = FALSE)
 
 test_that("glimpse() Table/ChunkedArray", {
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-scalar.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-scalar.R
index 06f95650435..8335dc95cd8 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-scalar.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-scalar.R
@@ -94,10 +94,6 @@ test_that("Handling string data with embedded nuls", {
   )
   scalar_with_nul <- scalar(raws, binary())$cast(utf8())
 
-  # The behavior of the warnings/errors is slightly different with and without
-  # altrep. Without it (i.e. 3.5.0 and below, the error would trigger immediately
-  # on `as.vector()` where as with it, the error only happens on materialization)
-  skip_on_r_older_than("3.6")
   v <- expect_error(as.vector(scalar_with_nul), NA)
   expect_error(
     v[1],
diff --git a/r/tools/test-nixlibs.R b/r/tools/test-nixlibs.R
index ed5192d8069..6996f234ced 100644
--- a/r/tools/test-nixlibs.R
+++ b/r/tools/test-nixlibs.R
@@ -23,8 +23,9 @@
 TESTING <- TRUE
 # The functions use `on_macos` from the env they were sourced in, so we need tool
 # explicitly set it in that environment.
+# We capture.output for a cleaner testthat output.
 nixlibs_env <- environment()
-source("nixlibs.R", local = nixlibs_env)
+capture.output(source("nixlibs.R", local = nixlibs_env))
 
 test_that("identify_binary() based on LIBARROW_BINARY", {
   expect_null(identify_binary("FALSE"))
@@ -157,6 +158,10 @@ test_that("check_allowlist", {
 })
 
 test_that("find_latest_nightly()", {
+  skip_if(
+    getRversion() > "4.4.0",
+    "long last version components (>8) fail to max on r-devel"
+  )
   tf <- tempfile()
   tf_uri <- paste0("file://", tf)
   on.exit(unlink(tf))
diff --git a/r/vignettes/developers/docker.Rmd b/r/vignettes/developers/docker.Rmd
index de2795cfa6b..13f60904c94 100644
--- a/r/vignettes/developers/docker.Rmd
+++ b/r/vignettes/developers/docker.Rmd
@@ -5,23 +5,23 @@ description: >
 output: rmarkdown::html_vignette
 ---
 
-Arrow is compatible with a huge number of combinations of OSs, OS versions, 
-compilers, R versions, and other variables.  Sometimes these combinations of 
-variables means that behaviours are found in some environments which cannot be 
-replicated in others.  In addition, there are different ways of building Arrow, 
-for example, using environment variables to specify the building of optional 
+Arrow is compatible with a huge number of combinations of OSs, OS versions,
+compilers, R versions, and other variables.  Sometimes these combinations of
+variables means that behaviours are found in some environments which cannot be
+replicated in others.  In addition, there are different ways of building Arrow,
+for example, using environment variables to specify the building of optional
 components.
 
-What all this means is that you may need to use a different setup to the one in 
-which you are working, when diagnosing a bug or testing out a new feature which 
-you have reason to believe may be affected by these variables.  One way to do 
+What all this means is that you may need to use a different setup to the one in
+which you are working, when diagnosing a bug or testing out a new feature which
+you have reason to believe may be affected by these variables.  One way to do
 this is so spin up a Docker image containing the desired setup.
 
 This article provides a basic guide to using Docker in your R development.
 
 ## How do I run a Docker container?
 
-There are a number of images which have been created for the convenience of 
+There are a number of images which have been created for the convenience of
 Arrow devs and you can find them on [the DockerHub repo](https://hub.docker.com/r/apache/arrow-dev/tags).
 
 The code below shows an example command you could use to run a Docker container.
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ The code below shows an example command you could use to run a Docker container.
 This should be run in the root directory of a checkout of the arrow repo.
 
 ```shell
-docker run -it -e ARROW_DEPENDENCY_SOURCE=AUTO -v $(pwd):/arrow apache/arrow-dev:r-rhub-ubuntu-gcc-release-latest
+docker run -it -e ARROW_DEPENDENCY_SOURCE=AUTO -v $(pwd):/arrow apache/arrow-dev:r-rhub-ubuntu-release-latest
 ```
 
 Components:
@@ -39,13 +39,13 @@ Components:
 * `-e ARROW_DEPENDENCY_SOURCE=AUTO` - set the environment variable `ARROW_DEPENDENCY_SOURCE` to the value `AUTO`
 * `-v $(pwd):/arrow` - mount the current directory at `/arrow` in the container
 * `apache/arrow-dev` - the DockerHub repo to get this container from
-* `r-rhub-ubuntu-gcc-release-latest` - the image tag
+* `r-rhub-ubuntu-release-latest` - the image tag
 
-Once you run this command, if you don't have a copy of that particular image 
+Once you run this command, if you don't have a copy of that particular image
 saved locally, it will first be downloaded before a container is spun up.
 
-In the example above, mounting the directory in which the Arrow repo was stored 
-on the local machine, meant that that code could be built and tested on the 
+In the example above, mounting the directory in which the Arrow repo was stored
+on the local machine, meant that that code could be built and tested on the
 container.
 
 ## How do I exit this image?
@@ -73,29 +73,29 @@ sudo docker ps -a
 ## Running existing workflows from docker-compose.yml
 
 There are a number of workflows outlined in the file `docker-compose.yml` in the
-arrow repo root directory.  For example, you can use the workflow called `r` to 
-test building and installing the R package.  This is advantageous as you can use 
-existing utility scripts and install it onto a container which already has R on 
+arrow repo root directory.  For example, you can use the workflow called `r` to
+test building and installing the R package.  This is advantageous as you can use
+existing utility scripts and install it onto a container which already has R on
 it.
 
-These workflows are also parameterized, which means you can specify different 
+These workflows are also parameterized, which means you can specify different
 options (or just use the defaults, which can be found in `.env`)
 
 ### Example - The manual way
 
-If you wanted to run [RHub's latest `ubuntu-gcc-release` image](https://hub.docker.com/r/rhub/ubuntu-gcc-release), you could 
+If you wanted to run [RHub's latest `ubuntu-release` image](https://hub.docker.com/r/rhub/ubuntu-release), you could
 run:
 
-```shell 
-R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose build r
-R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose run r
+```shell
+R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose build r
+R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose run r
 ```
 
 ### Example - Using Archery
 
 Alternatively, you may prefer to use the [Archery tool to run docker images](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/developers/docker.html).
-This has the advantage of making it simpler to build some of the existing Arrow 
-CI jobs which have hierarchical dependencies, and so for example, you could 
+This has the advantage of making it simpler to build some of the existing Arrow
+CI jobs which have hierarchical dependencies, and so for example, you could
 build the R package on a container which already has the C++ code pre-built.
 
 This is the same tool which our CI uses - via a tool called [Crossbow](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/developers/crossbow.html).
@@ -103,5 +103,5 @@ This is the same tool which our CI uses - via a tool called [Crossbow](https://a
 If you want to run the `r` workflow discussed above, you could run:
 
 ```shell
-R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest archery docker run r
+R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest archery docker run r
 ```
diff --git a/r/vignettes/install.Rmd b/r/vignettes/install.Rmd
index df43a9de36f..cc90c5ff08c 100644
--- a/r/vignettes/install.Rmd
+++ b/r/vignettes/install.Rmd
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ The prebuilt binaries come with S3 and GCS support enabled, so you will need to
 
 ## Install release version (easy way)
 
-On macOS and Windows, when you run `install.packages("arrow")` and install arrow from CRAN, you get an R binary package that contains a precompiled version of libarrow. Installing binaries is much easier that installing from source, but CRAN does not host binaries for Linux. This means that the default behaviour when you run `install.packages()` on Linux is to retrieve the source version of the R package and compile both the R package _and_ libarrow from source. We'll talk about this scenario in the next section (the "less easy" way), but first we'll suggest two faster alternatives that are usually much easier. 
+On macOS and Windows, when you run `install.packages("arrow")` and install arrow from CRAN, you get an R binary package that contains a precompiled version of libarrow. Installing binaries is much easier that installing from source, but CRAN does not host binaries for Linux. This means that the default behaviour when you run `install.packages()` on Linux is to retrieve the source version of the R package and compile both the R package _and_ libarrow from source. We'll talk about this scenario in the next section (the "less easy" way), but first we'll suggest two faster alternatives that are usually much easier.
 
 ### Binary R package with libarrow binary via RSPM/conda
 
@@ -154,15 +154,15 @@ knitr::include_graphics("./r_source_libarrow_source.png")
 ```
 
 The "less easy" way to install arrow is to install both the R package and the underlying Arrow C++ library (libarrow) from source. This method is somewhat more
-difficult because compiling and installing R packages with C++ dependencies 
-generally requires installing system packages, which you may not have privileges 
-to do, and/or building the C++ dependencies separately, which introduces all sorts 
+difficult because compiling and installing R packages with C++ dependencies
+generally requires installing system packages, which you may not have privileges
+to do, and/or building the C++ dependencies separately, which introduces all sorts
 of additional ways for things to go wrong.
 
-Installing from the full source build of arrow, compiling both C++ and R 
-bindings, will handle most of the dependency management for you, but it is 
-much slower than using binaries. However, if  using binaries isn't an option 
-for you,or you wish to customize your Linux installation, the instructions in 
+Installing from the full source build of arrow, compiling both C++ and R
+bindings, will handle most of the dependency management for you, but it is
+much slower than using binaries. However, if  using binaries isn't an option
+for you,or you wish to customize your Linux installation, the instructions in
 this section explain how to do that.
 
 ### Basic configuration
@@ -369,10 +369,10 @@ satisfy C++ dependencies.
 
 ## Offline installation
 
-The `install-arrow.R` file mentioned in the previous section includes a 
-function called `create_package_with_all_dependencies()`. Normally, when 
-installing on a computer with internet access, the build process will 
-download third-party dependencies as needed. This function provides a 
+The `install-arrow.R` file mentioned in the previous section includes a
+function called `create_package_with_all_dependencies()`. Normally, when
+installing on a computer with internet access, the build process will
+download third-party dependencies as needed. This function provides a
 way to download them in advance, which can be useful when installing Arrow
 on a computer without internet access. The process is as follows:
 
@@ -380,11 +380,11 @@ on a computer without internet access. The process is as follows:
 **Step 1.** Using a computer with internet access, download dependencies:
 
 * Install the arrow package **or** source the script directly using the following command:
-  
+
   ```r
   source("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apache/arrow/main/r/R/install-arrow.R")
   ```
-  
+
 * Use the `create_package_with_all_dependencies()` function to create the installation bundle:
 
   ```r
@@ -399,27 +399,27 @@ on a computer without internet access. The process is as follows:
 
   ```r
   install.packages(
-    "my_arrow_pkg.tar.gz", 
+    "my_arrow_pkg.tar.gz",
     dependencies = c("Depends", "Imports", "LinkingTo")
    )
   ```
 
   This installation will build from source, so `cmake` must be available
-  
+
 * Run `arrow_info()` to check installed capabilities
 
 
 Notes:
 
-- arrow _can_ be installed on a computer without internet access 
-without using this function, but many useful features will be disabled, 
+- arrow _can_ be installed on a computer without internet access
+without using this function, but many useful features will be disabled,
 as they depend on third-party components. More precisely,
 `arrow::arrow_info()$capabilities()` will be `FALSE` for every
 capability.
 
 - If you are using binary packages you shouldn't need to this function. You
 can download the appropriate binary from your package repository, transfer
-that to the offline computer, and install that. 
+that to the offline computer, and install that.
 
 - If you're using RStudio Package Manager on Linux (RSPM), and you want to
 make a source bundle with this function, make sure to set the first repository
@@ -523,11 +523,11 @@ so that we can improve the script.
 
 ## Contributing
 
-We are constantly working to make the installation process as painless as 
+We are constantly working to make the installation process as painless as
 possible. If you find ways to improve the process, please [report an issue](https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues) so that we can
 document it. Similarly, if you find that your Linux distribution
-or version is not supported, we would welcome the contribution of Docker 
-images (hosted on Docker Hub) that we can use in our continuous integration 
+or version is not supported, we would welcome the contribution of Docker
+images (hosted on Docker Hub) that we can use in our continuous integration
 and hopefully improve our coverage. If you do contribute a Docker image,
 it should be as minimal as possible, containing only R and the dependencies it
 requires. For reference, see the images that
@@ -537,19 +537,16 @@ You can test the arrow R package installation using the `docker-compose`
 setup included in the `apache/arrow` git repository. For example,
 
 ```
-R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose build r
-R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-gcc-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose run r
+R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose build r
+R_ORG=rhub R_IMAGE=ubuntu-release R_TAG=latest docker-compose run r
 ```
 
 installs the arrow R package, including libarrow, on the
-[rhub/ubuntu-gcc-release](https://hub.docker.com/r/rhub/ubuntu-gcc-release)
+[rhub/ubuntu-release](https://hub.docker.com/r/rhub/ubuntu-release)
 image.
 
 ## Further reading
 
 - To learn about installing development versions, see the article on [installing nightly builds](./install_nightly.html).
-- If you're contributing to the Arrow project, see the [Arrow R developers guide](./developing.html) for resources to help you on set up your development environment.  
+- If you're contributing to the Arrow project, see the [Arrow R developers guide](./developing.html) for resources to help you on set up your development environment.
 - Arrow developers may also wish to read a more detailed discussion of the code run during the installation process, described in the [install details article](./developers/install_details.html).
-
-
-