It rises on Axe Edge Moor near Buxton and flows generally south to its confluence with the River Trent at Newton Solney.

Charles Cotton's Fishing House, which was the inspiration for Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler,[3] stands in the woods by the river near Hartington.

The valley increases in size as the river continues south to reach Mapleton and then Mayfield, where it is crossed by the medieval Hanging Bridge.

[8] The Dove now flows in a south-westerly direction, passing Norbury and Ellastone, where it turns south until it reaches Rocester.

The river continues east passing the villages of Marston, Rolleston on Dove and Egginton, where it is joined by its last tributary, the Hilton Brook.