This invention relates to the construction of microfabricated devices and, in particular, to types of microfabricated devices requiring thermal isolation from the substrates upon which they are built. This invention discloses vertical thermal isolators and methods of fabricating the vertical thermal isolators. Vertical thermal isolators offer an advantage over thermal isolators of the prior art, which were substantially horizontal in nature, in that less wafer real estate is required for the use of the vertical thermal isolators, thereby allowing a greater density per unit area of the microfabricated devices.