To help clarify the relative and absolute timing of post-Variscan cooling and exhumation processes in the Ruhla Crystalline Complex (RCC) situated in the NW part of the Saxo-Bohemian massif, eight zircon and eleven apatite fission-track ages and nine apatite track length measurements have been obtained. Zircon fission-track ages support an existing model of post-Variscan exhumation of the RCC as three discrete blocks. The eastern and western blocks show cooling from peak metamorphic conditions to below 260+/-30 o C by ca. 300Ma and exposure by 296Ma. The central block shows a later cooling to below 260+/-30 o C by ca. 270Ma and exposure at the surface by ca. 256Ma. Apatite fission-track data reveal Late Cretaceous accelerated cooling through the apatite partial annealing zone (120 to 60 o C). This can be correlated with tectonic inversion at this time. The apatite data also indicate that the rocks of the RCC were at temperatures above 110+/-10 o C before ca. 85Ma. This requires either an anomalously high palaeo-geothermal gradient of ca. 60 o Ckm - 1 during the Late Cretaceous or that the RCC region was originally covered by up to 1400m of now eroded Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. We favour a combination of both factors, with accelerated erosion of missing overburden during a period of increased heat flow initiated at ca. 85Ma.