Lovely people , great beaches , good coffee , great places to eat , rather safe area , Its home to me. St Clair's main geographical features are St Clair Beach, the western end of the long beach (Ocean Beach) which stretches along the city's southern shore, and the promontory of Forbury Hill which rises 159 metres (522 ft) above the plain. The summit of the hill lies within the grounds of St Clair
Golf Course, in the west of the suburb. Forbury Hill's flanks include a large cliff face one kilometre inland from the beach and a rocky headland which juts into the Pacific Ocean. The small outcrop of White Island lies to the immediate south of St Clair beach. The inland cliff, which runs parallel with and to the west of Forbury Road, was the site of a quarry in the early days of the city. The city's largest retirement village and its only meetinghouse for the LDS Church both lie in the shadow of this cliff. The beach and the dunes are often the victims of erosion if weather patterns see series of storms hit the city from the south. Such erosion between 2002 and 2007 saw emergency measures taken to add sand to the dunes in 2007 and 2008. The erosion is a long-term ongoing concern, as evidenced by attempts at beach protecting begun in 1904 which saw the addition of sturdy wooden piles and windbreaks to the beack the last surviving sets of wooden posts from these efforts are a landmark of St Clair Beach, often seen as being the dividing line between St Clair and Middle Beaches. Another beach, Second Beach, lies to the west of St Clair Beach, separated from it by a rocky outcrop on which lies St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool. Second Beach is rocky rather than sandy, and is flanked by cliffs that form the head of Forbury Hill, some of which include hexagonal basalt columns, one of three such outcrops in Dunedin (the others being at Blackhead, further to the west, and at the Organ Pipes formation on Mount Cargill. This natural amphitheatre is now largely wild but easily reached by a footpath. It was the site of quarrying operations in the early days of Dunedin, but only the overgrown remnants of concrete walls are today left of this. A small stream runs from the flank of Forbury Hill, passing into a culvert before reaching the sea at the western end of St Clair Beach. Bedford Street follows the steep valley of this stream for much of its short length. The suburb is surrounded by the suburbs of Corstorphine, Kew, Forbury, and St Kilda. Its main roads are Forbury Road, Bay View Road, Bedford Street, and Allandale Road, with a small shopping area close to the junction of Allandale and Forbury Roads. An esplanade runs along the coast at the southern end of Forbury Road, and is the site of several restaurants and cafes. The Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village and the spire of Dunedin's LDS Church meetinghouse are visible against the cliffs of the former quarry that lies to the west of Forbury Road.
