How can I make a node like template for a vocabulary? I have a taxonomy where I want to theme the term pages.

I only want to theme the terms pages in this taxonomy.

No matter what I do I can't see to get it to show a template file that I can then further customise.

I have a node page at /name
then I have the terms of the taxonomy using the path pattern /name/term_name

Can anyone help me figure this out, it seems strangely difficult. To the point where I am begining to wonder if some module might be derailing me.

From what I understand I should be about to make a template named something "taxonomy-term--myTaxonomy_name.tpl.php" but I can't seem to dislodge the default term view. Even with many cache clearings.
Enable the Taxonomy term Views if you haven't already, and look into theme suggestions there. 

It seems you have views-view--taxonomy-term--page.tpl.php available where you can add some logic that would apply to only a certain Vocabulary. 

You can also Clone the Taxonomy term Views twice, Filter to only certain Vocabulary in one Views, and to all the rest in the other Views, then use the template in the first Views for special styles. 

You can use the Taxonomy Views Integrator module to assign different Views to output different term pages.