Star Trailing @ Shell Island

This weekend I have the opportunity to take some awesome star trail shots as my family and I are camping at Shell Island. I've been doing a bit of research in order to be prepared for the shoot.
I'm undecided on.whether to.add some natural landscape to the composition or a nice silhouette. I will only knoe when I arrive at the location. I'm hoping the backdrop of mount Snowdon will work.
What I do know is that I will need

• My camera
• Tripod
• Remote
• Fast lens with large aperture (smaller the better 1.4)
• Photo editing software preferably Adobe bridge and Photoshop.

And finally....lots of time.

I've done some research on how to find the right position in the night sky in order to get the perfect shot like below.
Living in the northern hemisphere I have to find out how to get close and central to the celestial pole.
You can find the Celestial Pole using a compass and knowing your latitude, the pole is at the same height as your latitude, so if Im 40 degrees north of it the pole would be 40 degrees in height when facing north.
Good job I brought a compass hey!

Below are a few useful links for anyone who is interested in trying out star trail photography.
I will update you all with the full details of my attempts in the next day or so....now to set up my tent haha

Update:
Ok, so I am 52 degrees lat, Sun has set so I know where north is....I think..now to wait for total darkness

Update:
There were no real stars visible to the naked eye until around 11.30pm. I set my camera onto the tripod at the correct angle 52degrees high facing north. to try and have the celestial pole central.
My camera was on manual, with an aperture of f4.5, shutter speed 30 secs and iso at 400.
I had little faith that these would turn out as I had not brought my remote or wide angle lens with me (and I wasn't driving 2 hours home for it)
The lens I used was the standard kit lens for my Nikon d5000, 18-55mm VR, I manually focused as the camera could not focus on auto as the lens was not wide enough to get any foreground in as well as the sky.
So, everyone was in the tent sleeing while I stood there like a lemon for over half an hour clicking away. I was concerned that I would ruin the composition thanks to no remote and having to manually click the button for each shot but worth a try.

The results were ok, I got 25 shots of two different angles, I have downloaded a software called Startrails.de funnily enough! This does all the stacking for you and can save a lot of time.
I am just in the process of uploading the images onto the software and will have them on here hopefully this evening.

I am going to attempt to do this at the Brecon Beacons next week. I will use my Canon 5d markII. I didnt want to bring it on the weekend as was camping on the beach, not a great environment for it to be in!!
I WILL make sure that I bring along my remote for the shutter and will try to purchase a wide angle lens although I do have the 24-105 mm L series lens. 

How to Create Dazzling Star Trail Photos, From Start to Finish

Star Trailing