It is located in the east of the city, close to Pakuranga and Botany Downs, and in the Howick ward and local board area of Auckland Council.

Dannemora is an ill-defined area of East Auckland near Chapel Road and Kilkenny Drive, south of Shamrock Park.

The area is close to the suburbs of Botany, East Tāmaki Heights and Flat Bush.

[4][7] During the Musket Wars in the 1820s, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki sought temporary refuge in the Waikato.

[10] The sale was envisioned as a way to end hostilities in the area, but it is unclear what the chiefs understood or consented to.

[11] In 1854 when Fairburn's purchase was investigated by the New Zealand Land Commission, a Ngāi Tai reserve was created around the Wairoa River and Umupuia areas, and as a part of the agreement, members of Ngāi Tai agreed to leave their traditional settlements to the west.

[12][13] In 1847, Howick was established as a defensive outpost for Auckland, by fencibles (retired British Army soldiers) and their families.

[20] A strip mall called Chapel Road Village opened in Dannemora in 2004, as the first of five planned neighbourhood commercial centres in the wider Flat Bush area.

[31] It opened in 2001 and was named for the oldest remaining house in the East Tāmaki (now a part of Flat Bush), Willowbank Cottage, which was once used as a school.