Silicon nanopillars were fabricated by a novel natural lithography technique utilizing a gold colloidal particle monolayer as an etch mask. Using SiCl4 based reactive ion etching (RIE), silicon nanopillars with high density and uniformity in height and shape were obtained with 15 and 10 nm diam gold colloidal particles. The uniform pillars obtained from the 15 nm colloidal gold etch mask were subsequently sharpened to less than 5 nm diam tips by oxidation. 5 nm diam colloids were used to obtain nonuniform 5 nm diam pillars directly by RIE, but with 2 nm colloids the limit of pillar formation was reached. The pillars were also fabricated in selected areas by lithographic patterning of the substrate.