[1] The head of the river is a network of about 10 unnamed streams which rise on either side of the border between the parishes of St Mary and Portland in a district called Cocoa Wood.

[1] From here the river flows essentially northwards until it reaches the Caribbean Sea just west of the Golden Grove Estate.

For this part of its course it has the character of a swift moving mountain river with numerous small waterfalls and rapids.

Below the 250 feet (76 m) contour its character changes as it enters a relatively flat valley and slows, taking about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) to fall the final 250 feet (76 m) to sea level at its mouth, an average gradient of about 1 in 118.

[1][2] Working downstream from south to north, the first bridge is at Timsberry where the river crosses from east to west under an unclassified road.