England · Lake District National Park

Pillar

WainwrightHewittNuttallTrail 100MarilynHuMPSimmBirkettSyngeFellranger

7 classifications here — Trail 100, Marilyn, HuMP, Simm, Birkett, Synge and Fellranger — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.

Pillar, 892 m, Cumberland
Pillar, 892 m, Cumberland. Photo by Ann Bowker, CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Height
892.4 m · 2,928 ft
Prominence
348.7 m
Grid reference
NY 17126 12104
Coordinates
54.49748, -3.28113
County / area
Cumberland
OS Landranger
89 90
OS Explorer
OL4S
Summit feature
trig point
Key col
NY 1916 1142 (543.7 m)

About Pillar

Pillar stands between Ennerdale to the north and Wasdale to the south, the highest of the dozen or so fells clustered around it in the Pillar group, and at 892 metres the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District.

The fell is named for Pillar Rock, the prominent crag on the Ennerdale flank that is regarded as the birthplace of rock climbing in the district.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Pillar (Lake District) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

Conditional Right to roam: Right to roam only on mapped CRoW open access land.

Permission needed Wild camping: Needs the landowner's permission — the Dartmoor commons are the only exception in England.

General position for England — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in England ·check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise
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Sunset
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Daylight
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Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 54.497, -3.281. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Summit weather live

Loading forecast for the summit (892 m)…

Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is trig point. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method
obvious summit
Record revised
16-Jan-21
Drop measured from
NY 1916 1142 · 543.7 m

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Get food nearby

3 places to eat or drink within 10 km of the summit, rated under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (Scotland runs its own Food Hygiene Information Scheme, a pass/fail equivalent).

Rated places to eat within 10 km of Pillar
PlaceTypeRatingDistance
Wasdale Head InnHotel/bed & breakfast/guest house4 out of 54.7 km · S
The Yew TreeRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen5 out of 57.5 km · E
Strands HotelHotel/bed & breakfast/guest house4 out of 59.2 km · SW

Classifications and ratings are the local authority's own and can be coarse — this is a lead, not a guarantee of opening hours or that food is served to non-residents. Follow a name through to the official rating page to check, and confirm before you rely on it.

Food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland (Open Government Licence v3.0). Distances and directions computed by OpenFell from the summit.

The Pillar group

18 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Pillar as the independent hill at its head.

Listed summits in the Pillar prominence group
SummitHeightDrop
Scoat Fell841 m85 m
Black Crag828 m34 m
Red Pike (Wasdale)826 m64 m
Steeple819 m21 m
Haycock797 m94 m
Pillar Rock780 m18 m
Little Gowder Crag735 m17 m
Caw Fell697 m22 m
Iron Crag640 m54 m
Yewbarrow629 m144 m
Looking Stead (Pillar)628 m19 m
Yewbarrow North Top617 m33 m

Twelve highest shown, of 18 in the group.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks

PeakHeightDistance
Pillar Rock779.9 m0.3 km
Black Crag828 m0.7 km
Scoat Fell841 m1.4 km
Steeple819 m1.4 km
Looking Stead (Pillar)627.7 m1.5 km
Red Pike (Wasdale)826 m1.6 km