Flagstaff to Swampy Summit via Swampy Ridge Track
Dunedin · Otago
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. Dunedin City Council’s own wording: “Dunedin City Council, Dog Control Policy 2024 (approved 26 November 2024, in effect 5 May 2025), Schedule C, the list of public places where dogs are allowed OFF LEASH, sub-heading Tracks: "Flagstaff track network that is managed by the Dunedin City Council - from Leith Valley (to the east) to Silverstream (to the west) and Green Ridge (to the north)". Schedule C carries one condition: "Dogs must always be under control." That covers this whole route. DCC's own 2024 dog control GIS layer marks Flagstaff Track, Firebreak Track, Pineapple Track, Swampy Ridge Track, Swampy Access Road and Rollinsons Track all "Off leash", which is the same answer from the same council by a different route. Two things worth knowing. Off leash here is the exception, not the rule: DCC says "if a public place is not listed in this policy, then dogs are allowed there on leash", so on leash is the Dunedin default and Flagstaff is one of the places carved out of it. And the Schedule C entry is scoped to tracks the COUNCIL manages, so if you carry on onto Department of Conservation land the DOC rules apply instead, not this one. Read from DCC's own policy PDF on 31 August 2026”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Flagstaff to Swampy Summit via Swampy Ridge Track
Flagstaff to Swampy Summit via Swampy Ridge Track is a big walk of 13.7 km, near Dunedin in Otago.
The long way to Swampy Summit, and the one worth doing. Ella and Ardie walked it and sent us the line: start at the bullring carpark on Flagstaff Whare Flat Road, take the left track up to the Flagstaff summit, then drop downhill to the first Swampy Summit sign, left, and right again a few hundred metres on. From there the Swampy Ridge Track runs north along the tops for a few undulating kilometres before it joins Rollinson's Road, a 4WD track, and the summit is about a kilometre further. Out and back it is 13.8 km. This is open tussock country above Dunedin, so it is exposed the whole way and the weather does what it likes. Clear, you get the harbour, the peninsula and half of Otago; in cloud you get the poles and not much else. The ridge section is the good bit, rolling along the top with nothing above you. On the way back you can take the Firebreak Track instead of going back over Flagstaff, which saves the second climb. Mountain bikers use these tracks too, not many, but enough that a dog should be listening. Dogs are off leash. Flagstaff is a named exception in the council's dog policy, one of the few track networks in Dunedin where the lead comes off, on the single condition that your dog is under control. On leash is the default everywhere else in the city, so this is a genuine treat rather than the usual. One real warning before you go, and it is the reason to read the box above: there is a rodent control operation running across the top of Flagstaff until March 2028, using diphacinone bait blocks in bait boxes and snap traps. Diphacinone is an anticoagulant and it will hurt a dog that eats it. The devices are set off the main walking tracks, which is exactly where a loose dog goes. Around the Firebreak Track, the Pineapple Track and the Ben Rudd area, keep your dog on the track with you.
It sits at the hard end and gains roughly 534 m, and takes about 3 hr 38 min to walk.
Dogs are welcome here. This walk is on the map because Ella & Ardie suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
