Pillar Rock
Pillar Rock at 780m (2,559ft) is a dramatic Birkett top on the face of Pillar in the Western Fells, distinct from the main Pillar summit — it is the famous freestanding rock tower that is one of the great rock climbing venues in England.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 780 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 12° to 6°C, gusts to 46 mph, 46.4 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 18:50 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 780 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Pillar Rock at a glance
Getting there
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Pillar Rock a Wainwright?
Pillar Rock is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list, the Synge list and the Nuttall list.
Where do you park for Pillar Rock?
We hold no car park within 2.5 km of the summit, so there is no short walk-in to recommend here. We only look within 2.5 km, measured straight-line: over longer distances a road may cross a pass and the drive bears no relation to the line.
Routes up Pillar Rock
No route guide for this fell yet. The nearest routes we publish start close by:
- Extended Mosedale Horseshoe — starts 4.1 km away
- Buttermere lake circuit — starts 4.5 km away
- Crummock Water shore circuit — starts 4.6 km away
Parking & buses for Pillar Rock
Best parking to hike Pillar Rock
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.
Tip: pan and zoom the interactive map at the top of this page to spot other potential parking near your route.
Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.
Getting to Pillar Rock by bus
The 77 stops at Gatesgarth, at Mountain Rescue Point, 40 m from the nearest parking for this fell. We haven’t mapped a route up it, so we can’t tell you the walk from there to the start. Seasonal: the 77 does not run all year. 1 November 2026 is its last day, and it is not daily before then — a bus on 31 of the 56 days from 7 September. We don’t know when it returns. Confirmed with the operator, 29 August 2026. The last bus is 18:26 towards Keswick (77), every day. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Pillar Rock
No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Gatesgarth Farm, Buttermere (paid), about 3.5 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Pillar Rock (within 3 km)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits — detour to them on this walk and they are pure profit. Distances are straight-line; allow extra for terrain.
On the hill: terrain and water on Pillar Rock
Terrain & access
A 780 m top with a mapped path to within about 46 m of the summit. There is steep ground (over 30°) on the direct line — pick your line with care. The summit is on CRoW open access land.
Computed from open data, not walked — pathless ground needs confident navigation, and mapped paths, barriers and access boundaries can be incomplete. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass); Natural England CRoW Access Land; DoBIH; Copernicus GLO-30. See the terrain & access report for how this is worked out across all 144 fells.
Other fells near Pillar Rock
- Base Brown
- Blake Fell
- Brandreth
- Buckbarrow
- Burnbank Fell
- Caw Fell
- Crag Fell
- Fellbarrow - Mosser Fell
- Fleetwith Pike
- Gavel Fell
- Great Borne
- Great Gable
- Green Gable
- Grey Knotts
- Grike
- Haycock
- Haystacks (Buttermere)
- Hen Comb
- High Crag (Buttermere)
- High Stile
- Kirk Fell
- Lank Rigg
- Low Fell
- Mellbreak (Mellbreak South Top)
- Middle Fell
- Pillar
- Red Pike (Buttermere)
- Red Pike (Wasdale)
- Scoat Fell (Little Scoat Fell)
- Seatallan
- Starling Dodd
- Steeple
- Yewbarrow