diff --git a/scripts/test_release.sh b/scripts/test_release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..735068dca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/test_release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -eu
+set -o pipefail
+
+: '
+
+Note: before running this script you need to tag and publish a new release (it can be a draft)
+
+Usage:
+
+  ./scripts/test_release.sh
+
+This script:
+
+ - Downloads the latest release tarball from github
+ - Builds it and runs tests
+
+'
+
+function step { >&2 echo -e "\033[1m\033[36m* $1\033[0m"; }
+function step_error { >&2 echo -e "\033[1m\033[31m$1\033[0m"; }
+
+if [[ ${GITHUB_TOKEN_MAPNIK_PUBLIC_REPO:-false} == false ]]; then
+    step_error "Please set GITHUB_TOKEN_MAPNIK_PUBLIC_REPO to a github token with 'public_repo' scope (create one at https://github.com/settings/tokens)"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+export MAPNIK_VERSION="$(git describe)"
+if [[ $(git tag -l) =~ ${MAPNIK_VERSION} ]]; then
+    step "Success: found $MAPNIK_VERSION (result of git describe) in tags, continuing"
+else
+    step_error "error: $MAPNIK_VERSION (result of git describe) not in "git tag -l" output, aborting"
+    step_error "You must create a valid annotated tag first, before running this ./scripts/publish_release.sh"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+curl --fail https://api.github.com/repos/mapnik/mapnik/releases -H "Authorization: token ${GITHUB_TOKEN_MAPNIK_PUBLIC_REPO}" > /tmp/mapnik-releases.json
+RELEASE_ASSET_NAME=$(python -c "import json;print json.load(open('/tmp/mapnik-releases.json'))[0]['assets'][0]['name']")
+if [[ ${RELEASE_ASSET_NAME} == "mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}.tar.bz2" ]]; then
+    step "Successfully found release asset to test: mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
+else
+    step_error "Error: did not find correct release asset to test: mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+export RELEASE_ASSET_URL=$(python -c "import json;print json.load(open('/tmp/mapnik-releases.json'))[0]['assets'][0]['url']")
+step "Downloading ${RELEASE_ASSET_URL}"
+mkdir -p /tmp/build-mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}/
+rm -rf /tmp/build-mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}/*
+cd /tmp/build-mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}/
+# note: curl passes the "Authorization" header to redirects such that this breaks aws
+# hence we need a two step approach here to downloading rather than depending on -L
+
+# first a head request to get the download redirect
+curl -I -f ${RELEASE_ASSET_URL} -H "Accept: application/octet-stream" -H "Authorization: token ${GITHUB_TOKEN_MAPNIK_PUBLIC_REPO}" > redirect.json
+# now download from the github s3 location after stripping bogus newline
+export RELEASE_ASSET_S3=$(cat redirect.json | grep location | cut -d' ' -f2 | tr '\r' ' ')
+curl --retry 3 -f -S -L "${RELEASE_ASSET_S3}" -o mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}.tar.bz2
+tar xf mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}.tar.bz2
+cd mapnik-${MAPNIK_VERSION}
+source bootstrap.sh
+./configure CXX="$(pwd)/mason_packages/.link/bin/ccache clang++"
+make
+make test