These sand dunes form the eastern part of St Ives Bay and are contiguous with Upton and Mexico Towans to the west, extending to the beach at Godrevy and the Red River Valley.
The dune system is wide with a patchwork of short coastal vegetation, maritime grassland, and dune vegetation.

The sand is soft and medium-coarse grained with a high shell content.

On the east side of Gwithian Towans the active face is replaced by rock cliff with some fresh sand falls. The sand at the top of the beach along this section is darker with a high lithic content, presumably eroded from the adjacent cliffs.

The eastern boundary is marked by an adit flowing onto the beach and a smaller adit slightly further to the east.