diff --git a/.github/workflows/r.yml b/.github/workflows/r.yml
index f4c5d8a5bd2d..d60e08b1f989 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/r.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/r.yml
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         config:
-        - { rtools: 40, arch: 'ucrt64' }
+        - { rtools: 42, arch: 'ucrt64' }
     steps:
       - run: git config --global core.autocrlf false
       - name: Checkout Arrow
@@ -228,10 +228,10 @@ jobs:
             r-${{ matrix.config.rtools }}-ccache-mingw-${{ matrix.config.arch }}-
       - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v2
         with:
-          # Note: RTools must be 40 here because RTools40 + ucrt is how we build the Arrow C++
-          # static library. The R is not used here but R 4.1 was the last R to use
-          # Rtools40.
-          r-version: "4.1"
+          # Note: RTools must be 42 here because RTools42 + ucrt is how we build the Arrow C++
+          # static library. The R is not used here but R 4.2 was the last R to use
+          # Rtools42.
+          r-version: "4.2"
           rtools-version: ${{ matrix.config.rtools }}
           Ncpus: 2
       - name: Build Arrow C++
@@ -284,14 +284,14 @@ jobs:
       - name: Download Timezone Database
         shell: bash
         run: |
-          # RTools 40 uses GCC 8.x which does not support C++20 chrono timezones,
-          # so Arrow uses the vendored date library which requires tzdata
+          # MinGW (non-MSVC) builds use the vendored date library for timezone
+          # handling, which requires a local copy of the IANA tzdata database.
           ci/scripts/download_tz_database.sh
       - run: mkdir r/windows
       - name: Download artifacts
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
         with:
-          name: libarrow-rtools40-ucrt64.zip
+          name: libarrow-rtools42-ucrt64.zip
           path: r/windows
       - name: Unzip and rezip libarrows
         shell: bash
diff --git a/ci/scripts/r_windows_build.sh b/ci/scripts/r_windows_build.sh
index ef9c58f6afca..9eebb33c628f 100755
--- a/ci/scripts/r_windows_build.sh
+++ b/ci/scripts/r_windows_build.sh
@@ -23,8 +23,26 @@ set -ex
 # Make sure it is absolute and exported
 export ARROW_HOME="$(cd "${ARROW_HOME}" && pwd)"
 
+# The RTools42 release (r-hub/rtools42) ships with 0-byte ca-bundle.crt files
+# due to an MSYS2 build bug (msys2/msys2-installer#40). Regenerate them from
+# the trust anchors that are already installed.
+if [ ! -s /usr/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt ]; then
+  update-ca-trust
+fi
+
+# The CI shell runs bash directly without --login, so MSYSTEM is unset and
+# the ucrt64 toolchain isn't on PATH. Both are needed for makepkg-mingw.
+export MSYSTEM=${MSYSTEM:-UCRT64}
+export PATH="/${MSYSTEM,,}/bin:$PATH"
+
+# RTools42's frozen MSYS2 keyring is too old for current mirror signatures.
+pacman-key --init
+pacman-key --populate msys2
 pacman --noconfirm -Syy
 
+# RTools42's ucrt64 toolchain doesn't include strip; install it for makepkg-mingw.
+pacman --noconfirm -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-binutils
+
 RWINLIB_LIB_DIR="lib"
 : ${MINGW_ARCH:="mingw32 mingw64 ucrt64"}
 
@@ -46,8 +64,8 @@ cd build
 # This may vary by system/CI provider
 MSYS_LIB_DIR="/c/rtools${RTOOLS_VERSION}"
 
-# Untar the builds we made
-ls *.xz | xargs -n 1 tar -xJf
+# Untar the builds we made (RTools42+ uses zstd compression instead of xz)
+ls *.zst *.xz 2>/dev/null | xargs -n 1 tar -xf
 mkdir -p $DST_DIR
 # Grab the headers from one, either one is fine
 # (if we're building twice to combine old and new toolchains, this may already exist)
diff --git a/dev/tasks/macros.jinja b/dev/tasks/macros.jinja
index 4edcfad3aecd..8e9a41b46b75 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/macros.jinja
+++ b/dev/tasks/macros.jinja
@@ -277,8 +277,6 @@ env:
   {# use filter to cast to string and convert to lowercase to match yaml boolean #}
   {% set is_fork = (not is_upstream_b)|lower %}
 
-{% set r_release = {"ver": "4.2", "rt" : "42"} %}
-{% set r_oldrel = {"ver": "4.1", "rt" : "40"} %}
 
 {%- macro github_set_env(env) -%}
   {% if env is defined %}
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 7c2695f95638..41a4274df3d8 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
@@ -90,10 +90,8 @@ jobs:
         - { old_arrow_version: '10.0.1', r: '4.2' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '9.0.0', r: '4.2' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '8.0.0', r: '4.2' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '7.0.0', r: '4.1' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '6.0.1', r: '4.1' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '5.0.0', r: '4.1' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '4.0.0', r: '4.1' }
+        - { old_arrow_version: '7.0.0', r: '4.2' }
+        - { old_arrow_version: '6.0.1', r: '4.2' }
     env:
       ARROW_R_DEV: "TRUE"
       OLD_ARROW_VERSION: {{ '${{ matrix.config.old_arrow_version }}' }}
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
index 612d84b185fe..644494bfbae6 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ jobs:
         r_version:
           # We test devel, release, and oldrel in regular CI.
           # This is for older versions
-          - "4.1"
           - "4.2"
           - "4.3"
           - "4.4"
diff --git a/r/DESCRIPTION b/r/DESCRIPTION
index c76dfc5572fe..f9aa93d474b2 100644
--- a/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ 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 (>= 4.1)
+Depends: R (>= 4.2)
 License: Apache License (>= 2.0)
 URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/, https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/
 BugReports: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues