The location of the boundary‐layer separation point on a circular cylinder has been investigated experimentally for a stationary cylinder and for a cylinder which is performing vortex‐excited oscillations. The results for the stationary cylinder are in close agreement with published data. For the vibrating cylinder, the range of angular displacement of the separation point was found to depend upon the vibration amplitude and frequency, and the peak displacement occurred at a different frequency from that which gave the peak cylinder amplitude. As the frequency of the wake motion increases beyond that which gives that maximum range in the location of the separation point, the range of the motion of the separation point decreases. For given cylinder and wake frequencies, the higher the cylinder amplitude, the greater the motion of the wake. The phase shift of the actual wake was found to be close to 180 deg behind that of an ideal wake which aligns itself behind the relative velocity vector of the flow. The phase shift was found to be independent of cyclinder amplitude.