After some trial and error, followed by some research, it seems Visual studio will not allow development of Sharepoint WebParts on anything but a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 machine (i.e. it must be running a Sharepoint install, which is restricted to those O/S's)

My current machine is running Windows 8, so as I see it, running a virtual machine is my only option?

Would appreciate a confirmation of this, unless anyone has any suggestions otherwise.

Thanks