I agree the rocks need to go, or at least be dispersed over a wider area to give the pond a more organic look. You might be interested in the concept of natural pools. This is where swimming pools are converted from a chemical pool to a watergarden that naturally cleans itself and provides safe swimming water. The features I love about these are border plants (sedge, rushes and water lillies) a little wooden jetty for accessing the water and surrounded by gardens. Here are some examples. You need not enlarge your pond or use it for swimming but turn it into an attractive water feature where possibly fish could live under water lillies and you can sit on the little jetty to observe the fish.

So move the rocks further out, plant sedge plants inbetween them so they cover them partially. Choose tall plants (Japanese iris & canna's are very beautiful and cheap for this) and creepers (creeping Jenny or water cress). A single water lily will be enough in that pond. Allow the deep part of the pond to be plant free, this will clear the water over time. Build a little platform over the water for seating. Then plant regular garden beds around that.

thanks for the images and suggestions. Spreading the rocks out and planting between them should definitely help a lot. I love the idea of the platform, we'll wait and see if our skill stretches that far! Thank you also for the planting suggestions. I have some cannas that I can relocate.

My worry is that , as the surrounding land looks flat , the rocks are there to stop the sides of the pond losing stability , and crumbling into the pond , choking itself ? I'd get a local expert to have a look -- I may be totally wrong , but you don't want to wreck the whole pond by making the wrong choice .

I agree that the rocks may be structural and removing them could really destabilise the whole pond. They do look quite ‘plonked’ and as such have no real reference to the natural land forms at the moment. Rocks are usually at least half buried in natural landscapes and when they poke up like this that always look very man made I think. If there is any slope try to make the water make more sense in the landscape. I’d be putting a lot of soil over the outer slopes of the pond but keep the lower end ‘rocky’. Soften the connection between rocks and pasture This will give lots of planting spots and easier access to enjoy water. And fewer snake hide holes. (Check Ellis Stone’s books). Lovely project, best of luck.

Perhaps could add just a very few larger rocks (no, not a simple suggestion!) if you have access to any locally and some smaller ones between to others. But they need to be the same sort of rock or it just gets weird. See if you can get their strata orientation similar if they have such a thing, though these seem to be bubbly volcanic types.

thanks brizcs. I think I can remove an outer layer without too much damage. and had also thought I could try and replace some smaller rocks with larger ones if we can find them. covering in soil for additional planting is a good idea. I also thought we might hide some under a platform if we can manage it. I see now it's not necessarily the rocks themselves but the lack of transition that makes the whole pond feel so out of place

There's an easy way to find out. LIft some rocks and see if they are holding a pond liner. It's a pretty small pond, not like a rural dam so it could be doing that. This could also have been an attempt at naturalising the pond gone wrong. I've never seen a pond on acreage done this way. Of course you can call your local earthdigger to come out and have a look for you. If there is a problem he might be able to fix it, at very little cost and enable you to remove the eyesore.