The Rhodope crystalline massif is an Alpine metamorphic complex exposed across several mountain ranges in southern Bulgaria and northern Greece which has experienced a complex history including continental collision, partial subduction and syn-metamorphic nappe stacking followed by syn- to post-contractional extension. We present new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and fission-track data from samples taken from both sides of the North Rhodopean Detachment that were combined with detailed structural studies to investigate the tectonothermal evolution of the northern Rila Mountains. A migmatite from the hanging wall of the North Rhodopean Detachment yields a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar muscovite age of 100.79 ± 0.55 Ma, a zircon fission-track age of 38.6 ± 1.9 Ma, and an apatite fission-track age of 21.4 ± 1.5 Ma. A biotite schist from the footwall of the detachment yields ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar biotite age of 34.90 ± 0.15 Ma, and zircon and apatite fission-track ages of 35.6 ± 5.6 and 13.3 ± 1.1 Ma, respectively. Our new data give evidence of a multistage exhumation of the study area. Late Early Cretaceous (~ 101 ± 0.6 Ma) cooling of the Variscan high-grade metamorphic basement through 440–400 °C was caused by either erosion of the emplacing thrust sheet, or post-contractional denudation. Fast exhumation along the North Rhodopean Extensional System drove a pulse of increased tectonic denudation and cooling during the Eocene (39–35 Ma). Exhumation of the rocks in the northern part of the Rila Mountains below 110 ± 10 °C during the middle–late Miocene was associated with displacement along a system of normal faults.