[1] It lies, apart from a small section which is southeast, southwest of the junction between the A34 (Oxford ring road) and the A420 westward to Swindon.

[2] The contiguous neighbourhood Dean Court adjoins Botley to its west, in the Cumnor civil parish.

The various large office buildings along the main road include Seacourt Tower, known locally as "Botley Cathedral" owing to its small metal spire, originally built in 1965–66 as a car showroom and garage to a design by Beecher and Stamford.

[6] It has since fallen within the parish of North Hinksey, and so was historically in the county of Berkshire, as marked in its northern half by the Vale of White Horse district boundary on the map.

Because the main road west out of Oxford has passed through Botley since the 16th century, development since then was centred here rather than in the village of North Hinksey itself, slightly further southeast.