Numerical simulations have been used to study the flow of a Bingham viscoplastic fluid around a circular cylinder in an infinite medium with negligible inertia effects. Papanastasiou's regularisation technique has been adopted to approximate the model. The case corresponding to preponderant plasticity effects has been particularly studied and convergence of the solutions examined in detail. The flow kinematics and stresses have been determined. The rigid zones have been identified and characterised. At large Oldroyd numbers, when plasticity effects become preponderant, a viscoplastic boundary layer appears around the cylinder. The characteristics of this viscoplastic boundary layer are quantified. The results are compared with existing theoretical results, concerning particularly the predictions of the viscoplastic boundary layer theory and the plasticity theory. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.