It is sited by the south bank of the River Frome, among low chalk hills on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs.

The A37 road between Dorchester and Yeovil passes to the north of the village on the other side of the river's water meadows.

In the 2011 census the population of the parish (which includes the hamlet of Muckleford to the north-west) was 357.

It followed a line from Notton, a few miles upstream, to Dorchester,[2] which then was the Roman town of Durnovaria.

[3] St Mary's parish church is a grade II* listed building.