AbstractThe University of Nottingham has been holding annual survey camps in and around the town of Llangollen in North Wales for nearly 50 years. The hilly nature of the site, the friendly farmers who allow access to their land, and the considerable comforts offered by local hotels at out-of-season prices combine to make Llangollen an ideal site for survey‘camp’. For the first 30 years, the Llangollen survey camps consisted of a topographic task supplemented by an invar base measurement in catenary, and its expansion into a small triangulation scheme. With the advent of EDM and the increasing prominence of surveying at Nottingham, the University acquired a substantial number of high precision instruments. As a result, the task of students is largely based on the provision of horizontal and vertical control, carried out with high accuracy theodolites and EDM instruments, with data almost exclusively processed on interactive micro-computers. Topography and basic surveying are the tasks of another (1st Year) survey camp, with Llangollen devoted exclusively to 3rd Year and M.Sc. students.