A raised pond affords the possibility to create a less common type of pond feature. Raised ponds can be particularly well suited to gardens with slopes or they can be installed due to the potential greater safety for youngsters or older folk, or they can also be chosen simply for the different landscape feature they represent.

Installing a raised pond poses different design and construction challenges to the more common sunken ponds. Firstly, a raised pond makes substantially less demands in the form of excavation. There is also the added benefit that there will most likely be a use for the soil that has been excavated somewhere in the pond surround. The challenge of a raised pond is the greater demands that are made on the surrounding structure. A sunken pond will disperse pressure into the surrounding earth whereas the great pressure exerted by several hundred or thousand gallons of water in a raised pond must be held in place by the constructed walls.

Popular ways to construct the surround are through the use of railway sleepers or by constructing a rockery wall that can perform both a decorative and structural role. These and other types of surrounding structures can be used to house a pond constructed using any of the popular pond lining techniques. In this type of project, a concrete construction has the advantage of providing a significant degree of structural strength in its own right.

One benefit of this type of pond design is that it is possible to get close to the water’s edge without crouching or kneeling and there is also considerably less possibility (although still some) of people falling in.