Fairy Stone Lake
Patrick County, Virginia170 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Fairy Stone Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Mesotrophic
- 29 ft max depth
Fairy Stone Lake in Patrick County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 6.4 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 3.2 µg/L. Surface area: 170 acres.
Fairy Stone Lake is a 170-acre mesotrophic lake in Patrick County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 29 feet. Phosphorus level is improving over recent sampling years. Compared to the 5 other monitored lakes in Patrick County, Fairy Stone Lake ranks #5 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2026-06-10. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Fairy Stone Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Camping1 public campground nearby
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyModerate algae
Based on clarity and algae readings from past sampling — there is no live water temperature and a current cyanobacteria reading for this lake. Check your state or county health department before you swim.
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Fairy Stone Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Fairy Stone Lake
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Fairy Stone Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Murky, only visible to about 6.4 ft. Phosphorus 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 3.2 µg/L. TSI 47.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 6.4ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 20µg/L | Fair GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 3.2µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 47 | Mesotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Moderate nutrients, good water quality
Ask about Fairy Stone Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~29 ft est.
Surface area
170 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Virginia has not published bathymetry for Fairy Stone Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
22 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.5 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,010 ft
Size, shoreline, and watershed area from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS). Mean depth here is modelled, not surveyed — HydroLAKES v1.0 estimates lake depth from surrounding terrain rather than from soundings. Treat it as an approximation, and prefer a state bathymetric survey where one exists.
Recreation & Access
Public campgrounds near Fairy Stone Lake
- Fairy Stone State Park Campground0.7 km
Nearest public campgrounds in the USGS National Map inventory, within about 3 miles. An empty list means USGS records no campground that close, which is not the same as camping being unavailable. Where the source gives an official reservation link, it is used; the cabin and hotel search does not cover campsites. More camping lakes
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Fairy Stone Lake
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Top-rated places to stay near Fairy Stone Lake
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Fishing Fairy Stone Lake
Water Quality Trend: Stable
Based on 5 years of monitoring (2015–2026).
Water clarity
Stable4 years
Phosphorus
Improving-1.28 µg/L/yr4 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+0.7 µg/L/yr5 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Fairy Stone Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Fairy Stone Dam, built primarily for recreation on the Goblintown Creek; earth-type dam, 50 ft tall and 350 ft long.
- Surface area
- 170 ac
- Normal storage
- 1,900 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 2,688 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 20.3 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Low
- Owner
- Department of Conservation & Recreation - Division of State Parks
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA141003 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.08 km)
Nearby Lakes in Patrick County
Frequently asked questions about Fairy Stone Lake
Where is Fairy Stone Lake?
- Fairy Stone Lake is a lake in Patrick County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Fairy Stone Lake?
- Fairy Stone Lake in Patrick County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 6.4 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 3.2 µg/L. Surface area: 170 acres.
Is Fairy Stone Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Fairy Stone Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Fairy Stone Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 29 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate. The lake covers 170 acres.
Are there campgrounds on Fairy Stone Lake?
- Fairy Stone Lake has 1 public campground from USGS The National Map within 5 km, including Fairy Stone State Park Campground. This is a location join, not a booking. Cabins and hotels are listed separately; campsite reservations use the official link when the source provides one.
Explore Fairy Stone Lake across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
127 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2015–2026. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB127 samples · 2015–2026
Analytical methods
- Tyler, John. 1968. The secchi disk, Limnology and Oceanograpy, 13(1):1-6.
- Total Phosphorus After Block Digestion
- 445.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophyll and Pheophytin in Algae by Fluorescence
- 446.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophylls and Pheopigments in Phytoplankton by Spectrophotometry
Monitoring station identifiers (1)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.
Other records on this page
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)
Public campgrounds from USGS The National Map Structures, within about 3 miles