The
Ashley River is a blackwater / tidal river in
South Carolina, rising from the
Wassamassaw and Great Cypress Swamps in western
Berkeley County. It consolidates its main channel about five miles west of
Summerville, widening into a tidal
estuary just south of Fort Dorchester. The river then flows for approximately 17 miles along the historical banks of the City of
North Charleston before reaching peninsular Charleston. The much wider Ashley joins the
Cooper River off the Battery in
Charleston to form Charleston Harbor before discharging into the
Atlantic Ocean. At the present time the land around the Ashley River or in Ashley Barony, as the original land grant was called, is mostly undeveloped.