Hmmm, why should my credentials need to make it out to the Server. The credentials that SQL Server is running under are already sufficient to read the file on...

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the confusion over BCP.

I'm really quite sure its not as simple as file share permissions. I've been looking at this...

Many thanks.

For other peoples benefit, the clue was in the SQL Server log file, in my case C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG. This had the following snippet:

The SQL...

I've just realised that I spelled 'HRD' incorrectly.

I've changed it to 'HDR' - no difference I still have the same problem.