An automated 18 metres (59 ft) lighthouse on Cape Pembroke was built in 1855, and rebuilt in 1906, and was restored in the 1990s.

Previously, the nearby Billy Rock offshore had claimed fifteen ships, and there were unlit markers here.

[3] In the late nineteenth century, Cape Pembroke peninsula was a small farm, which the islands' government leased to James Smith of Stanley.

In June 2007, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex unveiled a memorial to the SS Atlantic Conveyor, a merchant ship requisitioned by the British military during the Falklands Conflict of 1982. the ship was attacked by Argentine fighters and the resultant explosions killed 12 sailors.

Whilst under tow after the event, she sunk off the north eastern coast of the Falkland Islands.