diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 60f3303c..ac03e158 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ Collate:
     'Result.R'
     'Table.R'
     'Viewer.R'
+    'databricks.R'
     'db.R'
     'hidden.R'
     'utils.R'
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index a5117039..3e2686ca 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ S3method(odbcListColumns,OdbcConnection)
 S3method(odbcListObjectTypes,default)
 S3method(odbcListObjects,OdbcConnection)
 S3method(odbcPreviewObject,OdbcConnection)
+export(databricks)
 export(isTempTable)
 export(odbc)
 export(odbcConnectionActions)
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ export(odbcListObjectTypes)
 export(odbcListObjects)
 export(odbcPreviewObject)
 export(odbcSetTransactionIsolationLevel)
+exportClasses(DatabricksOdbcDriver)
 exportClasses(OdbcConnection)
 exportClasses(OdbcDriver)
 exportClasses(OdbcResult)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index ceb25f43..bd273eb8 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@
 * Oracle: Fix regression when falling back to odbcConnectionColumns to
   describe column data types (@detule, #587)
 
+* Add a new, specialised `odbc::databricks()` class with its own `dbConnect()`
+  method to make using Databricks's ODBC driver easier (@atheriel, #615).
+
 # odbc 1.3.5
 
 * Various fixes for `R CMD check`.
diff --git a/R/databricks.R b/R/databricks.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..74049988
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/databricks.R
@@ -0,0 +1,166 @@
+#' Helper for Connecting to Databricks via ODBC
+#'
+#' @description
+#'
+#' Connect to Databricks clusters and SQL warehouses via the [Databricks ODBC
+#' driver](https://www.databricks.com/spark/odbc-drivers-download).
+#'
+#' In particular, the custom `dbConnect()` method for the Databricks ODBC driver
+#' implements a subset of the [Databricks client unified authentication](https://docs.databricks.com/en/dev-tools/auth.html#databricks-client-unified-authentication)
+#' model, with support for personal access tokens, OAuth machine-to-machine
+#' credentials, and OAuth user-to-machine credentials supplied via Posit
+#' Workbench or the Databricks CLI on desktop.
+#'
+#' All of these credentials are detected automatically if present using
+#' [standard environment variables](https://docs.databricks.com/en/dev-tools/auth.html#environment-variables-and-fields-for-client-unified-authentication).
+#'
+#' @inheritParams DBI::dbConnect
+#' @param http_path To query a cluster, use the HTTP Path value found under
+#'   `Advanced Options > JDBC/ODBC` in the Databricks UI. For SQL warehouses,
+#'   this is found under `Connection Details` instead.
+#' @param workspace The URL of a Databricks workspace, e.g.
+#'   `"https://example.cloud.databricks.com"`.
+#' @param driver The name of the Databricks ODBC driver, or `NULL` to use the
+#'   default name.
+#' @param ... Further arguments passed on to [`dbConnect()`].
+#'
+#' @returns An `OdbcConnection` object with an active connection to a Databricks
+#'   cluster or SQL warehouse.
+#'
+#' @examples
+#' \dontrun{
+#' DBI::dbConnect(
+#'   odbc::databricks(),
+#'   http_path = "sql/protocolv1/o/4425955464597947/1026-023828-vn51jugj"
+#' )
+#' }
+#' @export
+databricks <- function() {
+  new("DatabricksOdbcDriver")
+}
+
+#' @rdname databricks
+#' @export
+setClass("DatabricksOdbcDriver", contains = "OdbcDriver")
+
+#' @rdname databricks
+#' @export
+setMethod(
+  "dbConnect", "DatabricksOdbcDriver",
+  function(drv, http_path, workspace = Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_HOST"),
+           driver = NULL, ...) {
+    args <- databricks_args(
+      http_path = http_path,
+      workspace = workspace,
+      driver = driver
+    )
+    args <- c(args, ...)
+    inject(dbConnect(odbc(), !!!args))
+  }
+)
+
+databricks_args <- function(http_path,
+                            workspace = Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_HOST"),
+                            driver = NULL) {
+  if (nchar(workspace) == 0) {
+    stop("No Databricks workspace URL provided")
+  }
+  hostname <- gsub("https://", "", workspace)
+  driver <- driver %||% default_databricks_driver()
+
+  # Check some standard Databricks environment variables. This is used to
+  # implement a subset of the "Databricks client unified authentication" model.
+  token <- Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_TOKEN")
+  client_id <- Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_CLIENT_ID")
+  client_secret <- Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_CLIENT_SECRET")
+  cli_path <- Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_CLI_PATH", "databricks")
+
+  user_agent <- paste0("r-odbc/", utils::packageVersion("odbc"))
+  if (nchar(Sys.getenv("SPARK_CONNECT_USER_AGENT")) != 0) {
+    # Respect the existing user-agent if present. Normally we'd append, but the
+    # Databricks ODBC driver does not yet support space-separated entries in
+    # this field.
+    user_agent <- Sys.getenv("SPARK_CONNECT_USER_AGENT")
+  }
+
+  args <- list(
+    driver = driver,
+    Host = hostname,
+    HTTPPath = http_path,
+    ThriftTransport = 2,
+    UserAgentEntry = user_agent,
+    # Connections to Databricks are always over HTTPS.
+    Port = 443,
+    Protocol = "https",
+    SSL = 1
+  )
+
+  # Check for Workbench-provided credentials.
+  wb_token <- NULL
+  if (exists(".rs.api.getDatabricksToken")) {
+    getDatabricksToken <- get(".rs.api.getDatabricksToken")
+    wb_token <- getDatabricksToken(workspace)
+  }
+
+  if (nchar(token) != 0) {
+    # An explicit PAT takes precedence over everything else.
+    args <- c(args, AuthMech = 3, uid = "token", pwd = token)
+  } else if (nchar(client_id) != 0) {
+    # Next up are explicit OAuth2 M2M credentials.
+    args <- c(
+      args,
+      AuthMech = 11,
+      Auth_Flow = 1,
+      Auth_Client_ID = client_id,
+      Auth_Client_Secret = client_secret
+    )
+  } else if (!is.null(wb_token)) {
+    # Next up are Workbench-provided credentials.
+    args <- c(args, AuthMech = 11, Auth_Flow = 0, Auth_AccessToken = wb_token)
+  } else if (!is_hosted_session() && nchar(Sys.which(cli_path)) != 0) {
+    # When on desktop, try using the Databricks CLI for auth.
+    output <- suppressWarnings(
+      system2(
+        cli_path,
+        c("auth", "token", "--host", workspace),
+        stdout = TRUE,
+        stderr = TRUE
+      )
+    )
+    output <- paste(output, collapse = "\n")
+    # If we don't get an error message, try to extract the token from the JSON-
+    # formatted output.
+    if (grepl("access_token", output, fixed = TRUE)) {
+      token <- gsub(".*access_token\":\\s?\"([^\"]+).*", "\\1", output)
+      args <- c(args, AuthMech = 11, Auth_Flow = 0, Auth_AccessToken = token)
+    }
+  }
+
+  args
+}
+
+# Try to determine whether we can redirect the user's browser to a server on
+# localhost, which isn't possible if we are running on a hosted platform.
+#
+# This is based on the strategy pioneered by the {gargle} package and {httr2}.
+is_hosted_session <- function() {
+  # If RStudio Server or Posit Workbench is running locally (which is possible,
+  # though unusual), it's not acting as a hosted environment.
+  Sys.getenv("RSTUDIO_PROGRAM_MODE") == "server" &&
+    !grepl("localhost", Sys.getenv("RSTUDIO_HTTP_REFERER"), fixed = TRUE)
+}
+
+# Returns a sensible driver name even if odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini do not
+# contain an entry for the Databricks ODBC driver.
+default_databricks_driver <- function() {
+  # For Linux and macOS we can default to the shared library paths used by the
+  # official installers. On Windows we use the official driver name instead.
+  default_path <- ""
+  if (Sys.info()["sysname"] == "Linux") {
+    default_path <- "/opt/simba/spark/lib/64/libsparkodbc_sb64.so"
+  } else if (Sys.info()["sysname"] == "Darwin") {
+    default_path <- "/Library/simba/spark/lib/libsparkodbc_sbu.dylib"
+  }
+
+  if (file.exists(default_path)) default_path else "Simba Spark ODBC Driver"
+}
diff --git a/man/databricks.Rd b/man/databricks.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e364021b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/databricks.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/databricks.R
+\docType{class}
+\name{databricks}
+\alias{databricks}
+\alias{DatabricksOdbcDriver-class}
+\alias{dbConnect,DatabricksOdbcDriver-method}
+\title{Helper for Connecting to Databricks via ODBC}
+\usage{
+databricks()
+
+\S4method{dbConnect}{DatabricksOdbcDriver}(
+  drv,
+  http_path,
+  workspace = Sys.getenv("DATABRICKS_HOST"),
+  driver = NULL,
+  ...
+)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{drv}{an object that inherits from \linkS4class{DBIDriver},
+or an existing \linkS4class{DBIConnection}
+object (in order to clone an existing connection).}
+
+\item{http_path}{To query a cluster, use the HTTP Path value found under
+\verb{Advanced Options > JDBC/ODBC} in the Databricks UI. For SQL warehouses,
+this is found under \verb{Connection Details} instead.}
+
+\item{workspace}{The URL of a Databricks workspace, e.g.
+\code{"https://example.cloud.databricks.com"}.}
+
+\item{driver}{The name of the Databricks ODBC driver, or \code{NULL} to use the
+default name.}
+
+\item{...}{Further arguments passed on to \code{\link[=dbConnect]{dbConnect()}}.}
+}
+\value{
+An \code{OdbcConnection} object with an active connection to a Databricks
+cluster or SQL warehouse.
+}
+\description{
+Connect to Databricks clusters and SQL warehouses via the \href{https://www.databricks.com/spark/odbc-drivers-download}{Databricks ODBC driver}.
+
+In particular, the custom \code{dbConnect()} method for the Databricks ODBC driver
+implements a subset of the \href{https://docs.databricks.com/en/dev-tools/auth.html#databricks-client-unified-authentication}{Databricks client unified authentication}
+model, with support for personal access tokens, OAuth machine-to-machine
+credentials, and OAuth user-to-machine credentials supplied via Posit
+Workbench or the Databricks CLI on desktop.
+
+All of these credentials are detected automatically if present using
+\href{https://docs.databricks.com/en/dev-tools/auth.html#environment-variables-and-fields-for-client-unified-authentication}{standard environment variables}.
+}
+\examples{
+\dontrun{
+DBI::dbConnect(
+  odbc::databricks(),
+  http_path = "sql/protocolv1/o/4425955464597947/1026-023828-vn51jugj"
+)
+}
+}