Poles taking strain making camp (8)
I believe the answer is:
barracks
'camp' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'poles taking strain' is the wordplay.
'poles' becomes 'bars'.
'taking' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'strain' becomes 'rack' (racking is a kind of straining**).
'bars' placed around 'rack' is 'BARRACKS'.
'making' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for barracks that I've seen before include "Military building(s)" , "men who fight in houses here" , "private housing" , "Jeers in soldiers' quarters" , "Buildings for soldiers" .)