Swallowcliffe lies on the southern edge of the Vale of Wardour. The parish is composed of chalk escarpments and greensand terraces to the south and upper greensand wooded hills to the south-west; also to the northeast, where Swallowcliffe Wood is prominent. Cutting through the hills south to north is the spring-filled valley where the village first developed. In the south, Swallowcliffe Down rises to a height of 221 metres at a spur of White Sheet Hill, and the parish boundary is an ancient ridgeway.