Rising at Alvediston to the west of the city, it joins the River Avon at Bodenham, near Nunton.

It joins the River Avon 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) southeast of the city at Bodenham (51°02′00″N 1°45′30″W / 51.0334°N 1.7582°W / 51.0334; -1.7582) after flowing through Ebbesbourne Wake, Fifield Bavant, Little London, Knapp, Mount Sorrel, Broad Chalke, Stoke Farthing, Bishopstone, Stratford Tony, Coombe Bissett, Odstock and Nunton.

The Chalke also provides a steady, year round flow, so that the winterbourne section of the Ebble is only from Alvediston to Knapp.

The flow of the Ebble is augmented at Little London by several pumped boreholes that feed the extensive commercial watercress farm at Knapp before the confluence with the Chalke.

In the book Ebbesbourne Wake Through The Ages historian Peter Meers surmised that the land and the bourne (river) was once owned by a man called Ebbel.