The design, construction and operation of the University of Durham ground-based gamma ray telescope is discussed. The telescope has been designed to detect gamma rays in the < 200 GeV region and to achieve good discrimination between gamma ray and hadron initiated showers in the higher energy region (> 300 GeV). The telescope was commissioned in 1995 and a description of its design and operation is presented, together with a verification of the telescope's performance 28 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy
