Carrack Gladden (, meaning ''rock on a bank'') is a coastal headland in St Ives Bay at the eastern end of Carbis Bay beach between

Hayle Hayle (, "estuary") is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately northeast of ...

and St Ives in west Cornwall.Ordnance Survey ''Explorer 7; Land's End, Penzance and St. Ives, 1:25 000 scale''. 1996 The cliffs between Carrack Gladden headland and Hawks Point to the east are of metamorphosed

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

s and rise to high. The acidic soils exhibit a range of vegetation types including maritime

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

and scrub. The heath and grassland habitats at the headland itself support the nationally scarce

Soft-leaved Sedge ''Carex montana'', also called mountain or soft-leaved sedge, is a species of grass of the genus '' Carex''. It is most commonly found in Europe and Central Russia. It is native to most countries in Europe including the UK, Germany, France and ...

''Carex montana''. On the steep, wet cliffs to the east, two other nationally scarce plant species Ivy Broomrape (''Orobanche hederae'') and

Maidenhair Fern ''Adiantum'' (), the maidenhair fern (not to be confused with the similar-looking maidenhair spleenwort fern), is a genus of about 250 species of ferns in the subfamily Vittarioideae of the family Pteridaceae, though some researchers place it ...

(''Adiantum capillus-veneris'') are found. The site has been included by

English Nature English Nature was the Executive agency, United Kingdom government agency that promoted the Conservation (ethic), conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006. It was a non-departmental public body ...

within a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

called the Hayle Estuary and Carrack Gladden SSSI in recognition of its biodiversity conservation importance.

References

Headlands of Cornwall {{Penwith-geo-stub