The parish is on the county boundary with Suffolk, about 7 miles (11 km) west-northwest of Lowestoft.

The parish includes the hamlet of Thorpe-next-Haddiscoe, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Haddiscoe village.

Inside the church are 14th-century murals including one of St Christopher carrying Jesus Christ.

[citation needed] Toft Monks mill is a disused windpump that used to drain the marshes into the River Waveney.

[7] Thorpe was a separate civil parish until 1935, when it was abolished and its area transferred to Haddiscoe; its population had been 78 in 1931.

It is about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) from the centre of the village and is served by Wherry Lines trains linking Norwich and Lowestoft.

The landscape painter Sir John Arnesby Brown (1866–1955) lived in Haddiscoe and is buried in St Mary's parish churchyard.