Measuring a few dozen square meters and featuring a monumental London plane tree, it is the smallest and the only natural island in the lake.

[2] The Île de Peilz lies about 500 meters off the mouth of the Eau Froide river, which constitutes the border between the municipalities of Noville and Villeneuve.

[7] Local tradition has it that the island was a simple rock until 1797, when it was covered by earth and surrounded by a supporting wall by the people of Villeneuve.

[3] The British poet Lord Byron described the island in 1816 (the Year Without a Summer) in his narrative poem The Prisoner of Chillon:[10][11] "And then there was a little isle, Which in my very face did smile, ⁠The only one in view; A small green isle, it seemed no more, Scarce broader than my dungeon floor, But in it there were three tall trees, And o'er it blew the mountain breeze, And by it there were waters flowing, And on it there were young flowers growing, ⁠Of gentle breath and hue."

According to a local story told about the island, in the middle of the 19th century a young English couple stayed at the Hôtel Byron, close to Chillon Castle.

Rudy dives into the water after it but the malevolent Ice-Maiden, whom he escaped earlier in his youth, kisses him one last time and he drowns.

Depending on the version of that story, the Queen either later discovered that she would owe taxes on the island and therefore returned it to Switzerland, or she kept it in the possession of the British royal family.

[3] As of 2021, the picturesque Île de Peilz is increasingly popular as a setting for Instagram and other social media photography.