Brown Willy is said to be one of "the UK's best-loved high points". The hill features in an annual race held on New Year's Day that starts and finishes at Jamaica Inn, an old coaching inn made famous by Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name. The hill is regarded as a sacred mountain by members of the Aetherius Society, a UFO religion founded in 1954 by George King. They believe that Brown Willy was charged with "holy energy" on 23 November, which they celebrate each year as "Charging Day", and gather at the hill on that day each year
Fountain Inn, Ashurst and non-fiction works, mentioned the Fountain Inn in his novel "The Four Men: a Farrago"; he wrote approvingly about the beer. In 1979, the pub was used to film the video for Wonderful Christmastime, Paul McCartney's Christmas song with his band Wings. Actor Sir Laurence Olivier lived just south of Ashurst, and the Fountain Inn was his local pub. The pub's facade appears in Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas" video from 1979 The Fountain Inn was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 9 May 1980; this defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest". As of February