The parish includes the residential area of Hinksey Hill about 0.5 miles (800 m) south of the village.

It is on the inside of the ring road and close to the Hinksey Stream, a branch of the River Thames at Oxford.

Pedestrian and cycle access to the village from Oxford is via the Devil's Backbone; a historic raised pathway across the neighbouring flood plains that features in Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar Gipsy.

In the 19th century John Ruskin tried to organize the making of a road between the two villages, as the ground between them was very boggy.

Until the middle of the 18th century South Hinksey was in the parish of Cumnor.