The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word PENINSULA
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
P
E
N
I
N
S
U
L
A
More clues leading to the result PENINSULA
- Alpine sun transformed narrow piece of land
- Writer, endlessly narrow-minded, in Korea, for one
- Alpine sun melted strip of land
- Writer, mostly aloof, develops narrow strip of land
- Writer in Australia retired acquiring long strip of land out to sea
- Cape corral not entirely closed
- Complex in Naples welcoming university in Calabria, say?
- Writer in Southern Universitycomposes Iberia
- Jutland, for example?
- Part of continent where Alpine sun’s unusual
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "narrow strip of land" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case narrow strip of land = peninsula.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does PENINSULA mean?
PENINSULA noun- A piece of land projecting into water from a larger land mass.