It lies at the southern foot of Blencathra, one of the more prominent fells in the northern Lake District, and to the north of the River Glenderamackin.
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Historically a part of Cumberland, Threlkeld formerly had its own railway station on the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway, on the opposite side of the valley, next to the (closed) Threlkeld Quarry, at the foot of Clough Head.
Richard Threlkeld Cox (1898 – May 2, 1991) was a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University, known for Cox's theorem relating to the foundations of probability.
The beck has its beginning as an outflow of Thirlmere, whence it flows northwards through St. John's in the Vale, towards Threlkeld, where it meets the River Glenderamackin to form the River Greta.