Cawood is a census-designated place (CDP) and coal town in Harlan County, Kentucky, United States.

He said one of his ancestors was Berry Cawood, a hero of the Revolutionary War.

[4] Cawood is located in south-central Harlan County in the valley of Crummies Creek, where it joins Martins Fork of the Cumberland River.

U.S. Route 421 now borders the southern edge of the community, leading northwest down the Martins Fork valley 9 miles (14 km) to Harlan, the county seat, and southeast across the Tennessee Valley Divide 14 miles (23 km) to Pennington Gap, Virginia.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Cawood CDP has an area of 1.5 square miles (3.8 km2), all of it land.