It is known for its association with Beatrix Potter – she owned the tarn and donated it to the National Trust after her death, and it served as inspiration for some of her stories.

Alfred Wainwright calls it the "most attractive" tarn on Claife Heights;[2] it is stocked with water lilies and fish, and surrounded by rhododendrons.

[2] After Beatrix Potter and her husband William Heelis married in 1913, they lived in Castle Cottage in Far Sawrey and rowed on the tarn in summer evenings.

[6] The "strange, flat bottomed boat" in which Potter and Heelis rowed is now housed in the Windermere Steamboat Museum; it was salvaged from the tarn in 1976.

[7] The tarn is stocked with brown trout, and the fishing rights are controlled by the Windermere, Ambleside and District Anglish Association on behalf of the National Trust.