The initial stage of La2Zr2O7 (LZO) formation by an interfacial solid state reaction between yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ) and La2O3 is experimentally investigated. LZO islands are formed on YSZ(001) single-crystal surfaces exposed to La2O3 vapours when a high density of pits are present on the YSZ surface. Compared with the previously studied formation of almost epitaxial La2Zr2O7 islands on a perfectly plane YSZ surface, characteristic differences and new features are found, which are explained by the influence of the pit rims. Whereas islands growing far away from a pit have a regular structure and consist of four h110i-tilted domains, islands growing near a pit involve a central hole and consist of two to four h100i-tilted stripe domains in addition to the four regular h110i-tilted domains. The new stripe domains contain two orthogonal sets of misfit dislocations: one of a Burgers vector with a component perpendicular to the interface plane, and the other of an in-plane Burgers vector. These new features are explained in terms of the preferred nucleation of LZO islands near the pit and their specific growth kinetics under the influence of the pit rim, where the stresses arising in the growing islands are partially relaxed by the deformation of the pit rim.