Bannockburn Inlet to Cornish Point
Bannockburn · Otago · Point to Point
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Dogs on a lead, and dogs stop at Cornish Point. The trail operator, Southern Lakes Trails, answers both halves in the FAQ on their own Lake Dunstan Trail page, read 6 September 2026: “Are Dogs allowed on the trail? Dogs are allowed on a lead around the urban areas of the trail - Smiths Way to Cornish Point - some 32kms. DOGS ARE NOT ALLOWED from Cornish Point to Clyde Rowing Club - this is farm land.” The whole of this walk sits inside the Smiths Way to Cornish Point section, so a lead is the rule for all of it, and Cornish Point is both the turnaround and the exact place where dogs stop. Daniel, who sent this walk in, told us there is a sign at the small carpark at Cornish Point saying no dogs from there on towards Clyde, which is the operator's rule as it appears on the ground. The operator's trail map states the ban from the other end too: “NO DOGS are permitted between the Dunstan Arm Rowing Club and Cornish Point.” Central Otago is an off lead district by default, under the Central Otago District Council Dog Control Bylaw 2020 (adopted 9 December 2020), clause 4.1.1, and we read all three of the bylaw's schedules on 6 September 2026 without finding anywhere on this route named in them. A district default is what governs where a trail's operator is silent, though, and this operator is not silent, so on lead is what we publish. Clause 4.1.2 holds either way: “Dogs must be under Control at all times.” We also checked the line against the Department of Conservation reserve boundaries nearby: all 274 points sit outside the Cromwell Chafer Beetle Nature Reserve, which is the strictest class of reserve there is and comes within about 630 m of the trail, and outside both Bannockburn historic reserves. No part of the route crosses the vineyard blocks along Cornish Point either, which we tested the same way”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Bannockburn Inlet to Cornish Point
Bannockburn Inlet to Cornish Point covers 6.1 km, near Bannockburn in Otago, walked as a point-to-point.
Six kilometres along the lake from the Bannockburn Inlet carpark out to Cornish Point, on the Bannockburn end of the Lake Dunstan Trail. Daniel walked it with Zola and sent his GPS recording in, and the line on this page is his. It is a rolling rather than a climbing walk, following the shore north east above the water, and most people will want most of a morning for the return trip. The character of it is open Central Otago lakeside: schist, thyme, rock and very little shade, with the lake below you nearly the whole way and the Cromwell basin opening up as you go. The surface is formed and good underfoot because it is built to cycle trail standard. In summer it gets genuinely hot out there and there is no cover, so carry water for the dog as well as yourself and use the lake. This is a shared trail and a busy one. It is two way, narrow in places at 1.5 m, and you will meet riders moving well, some of them on e-bikes. Dogs go on a lead through here by the operator's own rule, and this is exactly the trail that rule is written for. Keep left and keep them close. The one rule you must not get wrong is at the far end. Cornish Point is where dogs stop. The trail carries on north towards Clyde through farmland, and the operator's own map says no dogs at all between Cornish Point and the Dunstan Arm Rowing Club, which is a 25 km remote section with stock on it. Walk out to the point, enjoy it, and turn around there.
Graded moderate, it climbs about 93 m overall, and takes about 1 hr 22 to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Daniel & Zola suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
