page_title: Pillar (Lake District)
section_title: Pillar Rock
hierarchical_section_title: Pillar (Lake District) / Pillar Rock
caption_attribution_description: English: My own photo of Pillar Rock, Pillar mountain, English Lake District. you have to be a hero.
context_page_description: Pillar is a mountain in the western part of the English Lake District. Situated between the valleys of Ennerdale to the north and Wasdale to the south, it is the highest point of the Pillar group. At 892 metres it is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District. The fell takes its name from Pillar Rock, a prominent feature on the Ennerdale side, regarded as the birthplace of rock climbing in the district.
context_section_description: Pillar Rock is a large rocky outcrop surrounded by cliffs on the northern side of Pillar, well below the summit. When seen from Ennerdale it looks like a tall and thin column, hence its name. In the early 19th century it became widely known as one of the wonders of the Lake District, chiefly due to its featuring in William Wordsworth's poem The Brothers.
  You see yon precipice—it almost looks
  Like some vast building made of many crags,
  
  And in the midst is one particular rock
  
  That rises like a column from the vale,
  
  Whence by our Shepherds it is call'd, the Pillar.
  — Wordsworth, The Brothers
  The first recorded ascent of Pillar Rock was made in 1826 by John Atkinson of Croftfoot, Ennerdale. His route, known as the Old West Route, is still classed as a rock climb, albeit one graded Moderate, the second lowest grade on the British system. It is the earliest recorded rock climb in the Lake District (not counting Coleridge's inadvertent descent of Scafell in 1802); subsequent Lakeland climbers also concentrated on Pillar, and by 1872 four different climbing routes had been pioneered on the rock. The easiest route to the top of Pillar Rock is now considered to be the Slab and Notch route, classed as a grade 3 scramble, whilst the classic route is the New West, classed as a Difficult rock climb. By 2007 over 90 climbs had been recorded, including 17 graded E1 or above.
  By 1913, George Mallory seconded by Alan Goodfellow, climbed Pillar Rock by what is now known as "Mallory's Route" – currently graded Hard Very Severe 5a (American grading 5.9) - similar in difficulty to The Second Step on Mount Everest.
  Pillar Rock has a topographic prominence of more than 15 metres, and thus qualifies for the list of "Nuttalls" compiled by John and Anne Nuttall in their book The Mountains of England and Wales (see also Hill lists in the British Isles).
  It is the only summit on the list that cannot be reached without recourse to rock climbing.
caption: Pillar Rock from Robinson's Cairn
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