Means of ascending rocky coastal area unveiled (9)
I believe the answer is:
escalator
'means of ascending' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'rocky coastal area unveiled' is the wordplay.
'rocky' indicates an anagram.
'unveiled' says to take the centre (the word's outer letters are taken off).
The middle of 'area' is 're'.
'coastal'+'re'='coastalre'
'coastalre' is an anagram of 'ESCALATOR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for escalator that I've seen before include "Moving staircase" , "nonstop flight" , "Carol eats (anag.)" , "Lift" , "the easy way up" .)