 It is the termination for a pair of coastlines – the western coastline extending from Cape du Couedic in the south and the northern coastline extending from Point Marsden in the east.It is described as ‘a bold cliffy headland, high’ with ‘the upper half of the cliff is formed of white limestone, and the lower half is very dark volcanic rock’ and that ‘the hills at the cape rise to a height of more than and are covered with small scrub.’

Cape Borda was formed when the sea reached its present level 7,500 years ago after sea levels started to rise at the start of the Holocene.The cliff line which includes Cape Borda consists of base strata of a metasandstone belonging to the Kanmantoo group bedrock such as Middleton Sandstone and Balquhidder Formation, overlaid by a relatively thick capping of Bridgewater Formation calcarenite rock.