It is thought to have been named after Kyle Farm which occupied most of the land required for the lake, which in turn was named after the Kyle district in Scotland from which the pioneer of the Lowveld, Tom Murray MacDougall came originally.

The lake covers about 90 km2 (35 sq mi) and was created in 1960 with the construction of the Kyle Dam on the Mutirikwi River.

The dam was built by Concor to provide water to the farming estates on the lowveld to the southwest, around the town of Triangle, where the main crop has been sugar cane.

In the 1980s, drought drastically lowered the water level in the lake, but during the 1990s it recovered.

The level fluctuates widely due to irrigation demands and the seasonal rainfall.