The town has a varied terrain, and is situated between two rivers, the Muddy Creek on the north and the Rowley River to the south. With a section of Plum Island bordering the Atlantic, the main land mass fronts Plum Island Sound with an extensive salt marsh area that eventually gives way to rolling uplands. Heavily forested, there are several working farms with numerous single-family house lots and a few apartments and condominium complexes. 

Bradstreet Farm, owned by the Jewett family since the 1600's is the nation's second oldest working farm to be continuously owned and occupied by the same family. Rowley is home to the nation's oldest stone arch bridge and the "Turning Place" (now the Rowley Common) where in 1775 a battalion of Benedict Arnold's musket men encamped enroute to Quebec. The Revolutionary War cannon, "Old Nancy", is one of the town's most prized possessions. The cannon was taken by Rowley soldiers from the British ship "Nancy", which was captured off Gloucester.

Rowley Massachusetts is located in Northeastern Massachusetts, bordered by Boxford and Georgetown on the west, Newbury on the north, Ipswich on the south, and the Plum Island River on the east. Rowley is about 10 miles southeast of Haverhill, 14 miles north of Salem, 28 miles north of Boston.