Seacliff is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

located north of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

in the

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The village lies roughly halfway between the estuary of

Blueskin Bay Blueskin Bay is an estuary in coastal Otago, about 25 km north of Dunedin, New Zealand. The name also unofficially describes the rural district which includes the northern slopes of Mount Cargill, the southern slopes of the Kilmog, and the ...

and the mouth of the Waikouaiti River at Karitane, on the eastern slopes of

Kilmog The Kilmog, occasionally called Kilmog Hill and known in Māori as Kirimoko,Place names'' on Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki website, viewed 2012-01-04 is a hilly area approximately 20 kilometres north of Dunedin, New Zealand, on State Highw ...

hill. Coast Road, an old route north from

, and the

South Island Main Trunk Railway The Main North Line between Picton and Christchurch and the Main South Line between Lyttelton and Invercargill, running down the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, are sometimes together referred to collectively as the South Isl ...

pass through the village.

History

Seacliff is the site of the former

Seacliff Lunatic Asylum Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (often Seacliff Asylum, later Seacliff Mental Hospital) was a psychiatric hospital in Seacliff, New Zealand. When built in the late 19th century, it was the largest building in the country, noted for its scale and extrava ...

a mental institution built in the late 19th century and, for many years, the nation's largest public building. The hospital was designed by architect Robert Lawson and managed for many years by Sir Frederic Truby King, who also founded New Zealand's Plunket, a post-natal health charity. Writer

Janet Frame Janet Paterson Frame (28 August 1924 – 29 January 2004) was a New Zealand author. She was internationally renowned for her work, which included novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awar ...

was notable among the mental institution many patients. A commemorative plaque on a

magnolia tree ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendr ...

commemorates the years

spent at

. In 1942, just prior to Frame's first admission, the mental institution was the site of one of the nation's major disasters when a massive fire engulfed the fifth ward, resulting in the death of 37 of the 39 female residents who remained locked in their cells.

was long affected by structural issues as a result of its poor foundation, which ultimately contributed to its relocation to

Cherry Farm Hawksbury, also known as Cherry Farm (and sometimes erroneously as "Evansdale"), is a small residential and industrial area in New Zealand, located beside State Highway 1 between Dunedin and Waikouaiti.Sea Container history. Seadog 1979. Place ...

. The remaining buildings were proposed to be a museum of transport and technology, but, after several years of acquiring items for display, the project was never realised. Several exhibits planned for the museum were subsequently relocated to the

Otago Settlers' Museum Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government regi ...

. The area is now a recreation reserve named, after Sir Frederic Truby King, the Truby King Reserve, although the remaining buildings are currently privately owned. The streets in Seacliff include Kilgour Street (the main street that runs through the village), Palmer Street, the Coast Road and Russell Road, which leads to the Truby King Reserve. One of Seacliff's claims to fame is the town's victory in the inaugural championship of New Zealand's annual knockout

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

competition, the

1923 Chatham Cup The 1923 Chatham Cup was the first annual nationwide football competition in New Zealand. The competition was run on a regional basis, with separate northern and southern tournaments, with the winners of the two meeting in the final. Very few ...

, wherein the locals beat Wellington's YMCA four goals to nil.

Seacliff now

Seacliff is settled by several families, some of whom commute to

for work and school, and a handful of artists who keep studios in the village.

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Otago