Wainwrights Baggers

Book 7 · The Western Fells

Pillar

A 892 m Wainwright in The Western Fells, with one desk-checked ascent from the car park near Wasdale Head: 5.7 km and 850 m of climbing.

Explore Pillar in 3D

Is Pillar a Wainwright?

Yes. Pillar is one of the 214 Wainwrights: number 26 of 33 in Book 7, The Western Fells, of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

Climbing Pillar from the car park near Wasdale Head

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Kirk FellRed Pike (Wasdale)Scoat FellSteepleYewbarrowP1 km
The route in green, from the car park (P) to the summit (triangle), with the bus stop (B) where it falls on the map and nearby Wainwrights as dots. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Pillar is 892 m high, 8th of the 214 Wainwrights by height, and belongs to the Western Fells in Book 7. This route starts from a free car park close to Wasdale Head, at about 75 m, the same start as the Kirk Fell route here. No bus stop with a current service lies within 6 km.

The line is 5.7 km long and gains about 850 m. It begins on lanes for about 350 m, then joins a public bridleway, named Moses' Trod on the map for its first 300 m. The two routes share this line to about 750 m, just past Fogmire Beck at about 650 m.

Pillar's line stays on the bridleway. From about 1.2 km OpenStreetMap grades it mountain hiking, and it climbs slowly to about 155 m by 2 km before steepening. It crosses Gatherstone Beck at about 2.7 km and follows Black Sail Pass from about 2.5 km to 3.1 km. Between 2 km and 4 km the path climbs from about 155 m to 605 m.

The gradient eases around 750 m between 4.7 km and 4.9 km, before the last climb to the top at 892 m. The final 24 m are graded demanding mountain hiking, a step harder than the rest of the route.

About 4 km of the line follows public bridleways and footpaths, and 4.8 km crosses open access land. About 160 m is on road, and a 40 m stretch of lane near the car park is on none of these in the data.

The GPX file is the same line, from the car park to the summit. Return the same way, or plan a longer walk with a map before you set out.

Download the GPXFree. The route is © OpenStreetMap contributors and the file is released under the Open Database Licence: you may copy, share and adapt it.

Where Pillar stands

1 · Eastern2 · Far Eastern3 · Central4 · Southern5 · Northern6 · North Western7 · WesternPillar
Pillar among all 214 Wainwright summits, each in its true position.

Nearest Wainwrights

Straight-line distances between summits.

All the fells in The Western FellsAll 214 Wainwrights

Map and route data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Heights along the route from OS Terrain 50. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (NaPTAN, Bus Open Data Service, Lake District National Park Authority rights of way).

Access land © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Heights, grid references and summit positions come from The Database of British and Irish Hills v18.3, used under CC BY 4.0.