The lighthouse provides a visual aid to the villages of Mortehoe, Woolacombe and Ilfracombe, and warns of the inhospitable and rocky coast that lines the area.

[2] It was built on Bull Point, though the Maritime Corporations of the Bristol Channel seaboard had lobbied strongly for it to be placed offshore on the Morte Stone (a local hazard to shipping).

[4] Inside, the light-source (a Douglass six-wick oil-powered lamp) was set within a revolving first-order optic, manufactured (along with the lantern) by Chance Brothers of Smethwick.

[5] Rotated by a weight-driven clockwork, it displayed three white flashes every half minute at an elevation of 154 ft (47 m) above mean high water springs.

[9] The fog signal equipment was housed in a separate engine room, built (together with a coke store and a small workshop) on the seaward side of the tower; it sounded through a single vertical horn, which was designed to rotate so that it could be angled to face into the wind when in use.

[18] The old lighthouse and engine room were demolished, but the adjacent keepers' cottages were retained and used by Trinity House as holiday accommodation for its staff.