[2] Richard Jupp was the architect[3] and Joseph Huddart supervised and directed its construction,[4] which was undertaken at the same time as the erection of two other lights nearby: one on St Catherine's Down and the other on the clifftop above The Needles (it being envisaged that the three would be used in conjunction).

[3] The red, brick-built Hurst Tower displayed a fixed white light, but the north-west part of the lantern was 'darkened' to prevent it confusing vessels navigating further along the coast to the west.

[6] The two towers together functioned as leading lights for vessels approaching through the Needles Channel; both were equipped with three Argand lamps and reflectors (those in the Low Lighthouse were shown from a lower window in the tower, while a separate lamp in the lantern room above was angled in the opposite direction, to guide vessels navigating along The Solent).

[3] Only the top of the Low Light was visible, but a red screen was positioned outside the walls of the fort as a day-mark, so as to make the tower look 'apparently complete' when the lighthouses were in line.

One panel was positioned on the south-west side of the lamp and aligned with the Low Light to provide the transit guiding passage through the Needles Channel;[10] the other was positioned on the east side of the lamp to guide vessels approaching via The Solent, with a red sector in addition marking a hazard, Solent Banks.

It was therefore replaced with a red square metal tower, mounted on steel joists alongside the castle wall to enable it to be moved laterally so as to adjust to future changes.

Due to increased use of the shipping lanes, a high-intensity sector light (designed to be seen day and night) was installed in one of the lower seaward-facing windows of the High Lighthouse, adjustable in case of further shifts in the sandbanks and using white, red and green light to mark with precision the narrow passage between the Needles and the Shingles Bank.