The stability properties and stationary statistics of inviscid barotropic flow over topography are examined. Minimum enstrophy states have potential vorticity proportional to the streamfunction and are nonlinearly stable; correspondingly, canonical equilibrium based on energy and enstrophy conservation predicts mean potential vorticity is proportional to the mean streamfunction. It is demonstrated that in the limit of infinite resolution the canonical mean state is statistically sharp, that is, without any eddy energy on any scale, and is identical to the nonlinearly stable minimum enstrophy state. Special attention is given to the interaction between small scales and a dynamically evolving large-scale flow. On the β-plane, these stable flows have a westward large-scale component. Possibilities for a general relation between inviscid statistical equilibrium and nonlinear stability theory are examined.