Qualla: Hurst Point Lighthouse

Hurst Point Lighthouse: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hertzsprung, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the night of 29 September 1786, three Trinity House lighthouses were lit for the first time along the western approaches to the Solent: one on the clifftop above The Needles, one on St Catherine's Down, and one at Hurst Point on the long shingle spit reaching out from the Hampshire coast. The Hurst Tower was a red brick lighthouse designed by Richard Jupp, sited just south-west of the medieval Hurst Castle. Sailors heading into Portsmouth or Southampton, navigating one of the most dangerous channels in southern England, finally had something to steer by. The principle was sound. The execution, the Trinity Brethren soon discovered, needed work.

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Image: Hertzsprung | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hurst Point Lighthouse: The Problem of the Needles

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. From certain angles in the channel, the Hurst Tower's light was obscured behind the chalk pinnacles of The Needles themselves. A lighthouse hidden by the rocks it was meant to warn you about is not much use. In 1812, a second tower was built at a higher level above the original. ...

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Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hurst Point Lighthouse: Rebuilt for the Castle

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steve Daniels, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between 1865 and 1873, Hurst Castle itself was substantially expanded, partly to defend against a feared invasion by Napoleon III's France. The lighthouses had to come down. In 1865 a new Low Light was built, a white circular granite tower with a red lantern, this time attached d...

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Image: Steve Daniels | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hurst Point Lighthouse: Borrowed Lenses

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the 1890s the High Light was given a complex new array of fixed first-order Fresnel lenses, with a Douglass-designed six-wick lamp at the centre. The contemporary plans displayed in the small museum inside Hurst Castle show something extraordinary: the new lenses were not new ...

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Image: Graham Taylor | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hurst Point Lighthouse: Acetylene and the Sun Valve

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lewis Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1923 both Hurst lights were automated. An acetylene lamp was installed, controlled by a sun valve: a brilliant Swedish invention that used the differential absorption of sunlight by blackened metal to open the gas supply automatically at dusk and close it at dawn. Calcium carb...

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Image: Lewis Clarke | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hurst Point Lighthouse: Three Towers on a Spit

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit C D Uglow, CC BY-SA 2.0. Both the 1866 Low Light and the 1911 Low Light remain in place, decommissioned but standing. They have been painted grey, to camouflage them against the granite of the castle wall and prevent confusion for mariners trying to identify the working light. The 1911 lantern still cont...

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Image: C D Uglow | CC BY-SA 2.0