Butchers Dam Loop Track
Alexandra · Otago · Loop
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. DOC’s own wording: “DOC’s own page for this track says it plainly: “Dogs on a leash only.” The same page adds “Access to Flat Top Hill Conservation Area is via an easement over private land. Respect private property by keeping dogs on leashes until you reach the conservation area.” So the lead goes on at the car park, not at the boundary. Worth knowing because DOC’s wider Flat Top Hill place page carries a looser sentence, “Dogs must remain on a leash until in the Conservation Area”, which reads as though the lead could come off once you are inside. It cannot: every track page inside the area, this loop and the Basin View Tramping Track included, carries the same “Dogs on a leash only.” line, and the track page is the rule for the track”. 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 Butchers Dam Loop Track
Butchers Dam Loop Track is a loop of 2.3 km, near Alexandra in Otago.
A short loop beside the water at Butchers Dam, and one of the easiest ways to get a dog out into proper Central Otago country. DOC’s directions are to travel south from Alexandra for 6 km along State Highway 8 and turn left into the Flat Top Hill car park near the dam. DOC calls it a 2.5 km loop, about an hour, “an excellent short family walk” graded easy to intermediate; the line drawn here measures 2.4 km from the car park, down the eastern shore, round the loop and back. There are some sections of stairs, and a toilet along the way. In DOC’s words the highlights are “a dam, lake, a historic hut, and skinks”. This is the driest part of New Zealand, under 300 mm of rain a year, and it looks it: schist tors, thyme, briar and the grey-green of a landscape slowly coming back. The reservoir was built between 1935 and 1937 to hold water for Alexandra and it drowned the old Butchers Gully goldfield, hotel and all. When the level drops low enough people say you can pick out the chimneystacks under the surface. The Last Chance Irrigation Company owns the dam now and it is still working water, so the level moves about through the season. DOC warns that this is a hot, dry, very exposed area: take water, a sunhat and wind protection, and there is no shade out here for a dog on a summer afternoon. Inge was right that it connects onward. DOC’s Basin View Tramping Track starts off this loop, and it is a much bigger day: 7.5 km, about three hours, an advanced tramping track at grade 4 with a 200 m climb, and the same “Dogs on a leash only.” rule. The loop itself is not a mountain bike track, but DOC notes the first section of it is used by riders getting to the bike tracks nearby, so expect to step aside early on. One hard warning before anyone swims. Otago Regional Council lists Butchers Dam as one of its known cyanobacteria hotspots, and ORC’s own words on the risk are blunt: “Dogs are particularly susceptible to poisoning as they can be attracted to the musty smell of toxic algae mats, if eaten it can cause severe poisoning or death. In extreme cases death can occur within 30 minutes after signs first appear.” ORC’s summer monitoring for 2025-26 has ended and restarts in December 2026, so there is no live reading to lean on. Check the water and the signs at the car park yourself, and if it looks like pea soup or there are dark mats along the edge, keep the dog out of it.
Graded easy, it climbs about 27 m overall, and takes about 30 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
