Truby King Recreation Reserve
Seacliff · 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: “Designated dog exercise areas and other public places where dogs are allowed OFF LEASH. Other reserve areas: ... Truby King Reserve (Seacliff). Dogs must always be under control. Dogs must be on a leash within 20 metres of protected wildlife, on all beaches unless otherwise specified, and on all coastal dune areas including access pathways (except in a prohibited area, where no dogs are allowed). (Dunedin City Council Dog Control Policy 2024, Schedule C and section 6.2.)”. 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 Truby King Recreation Reserve
Truby King Recreation Reserve is a short walk of 0.7 km, near Seacliff in Otago.
Dunedin City Council names Truby King Reserve (Seacliff) in Schedule C of its Dog Control Policy 2024, the schedule of public places where dogs are allowed off leash, so this is a granted off-leash reserve rather than the council default. The condition that rides with it is the schedule’s own line: dogs must always be under control. The reserve is 16 hectares on the hillside above Seacliff, north of Dunedin off the coast road, with toilets, picnic areas and walking tracks, and the main entrance is down Russell Road where there is limited roadside parking. Keep the lead on along Russell Road itself, because roads and footpaths are leash ground in Dunedin, and the boundary sits right at the entrance. The line mapped here is the spine of the reserve: in from the road on the entrance track, then east on the one formed path for about 750 metres one way, back the same way for a walk of roughly 1.5 km. Other tracks thread the grounds and are worth a wander, but they are not mapped, so treat this as the way in rather than the whole network. Two limits ride with the off-leash grant and neither of them bends. The first is the boundary. Two DOC conservation areas, Seacliff and Brinns Point, sit immediately outside the reserve, and DOC rules take over the moment you cross onto them: DOC says some places allow dogs, some need a permit and some do not allow dogs at all. The council’s off-leash listing stops at the reserve edge. The second is the coast, which is under a kilometre away. The lead goes back on for any beach, for coastal dune areas including the access pathways, and within 20 metres of protected wildlife anywhere. One name to keep straight: the Sir Truby King Railway Bridge walking track in the Catlins is a different walk 250 km south of here, under a different council.
It sits at the easy end and gains roughly 8 m, and takes about 9 min to walk.
Dogs are welcome here. This walk is on the map because Petra & Bowzer suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
