Shipwrecks shortly before the construction included the wreck of the Royal Navy vessel HMS Boreas in 1807 [3][4]: 11–12  A further wreck in 1816 of Marie Elizabeth, a merchant ship from Copenhagen, at Rocquaine triggered letters and discussions about undertaking a nobel project, Trinity House was contacted and in January 1817 about a possible lighthouse on the Pleinmont cliff top, they wrote back saying a lighthouse was not necessary as the lights on Les Casquets and at Portland were sufficient and a new lighthouse would be confusing and do more harm than good.

[4]: 17 Additional ships were wrecked in 1820, 1834 and 1835, with pressure being exerted on Trinity House, who in 1847 reconsidered the proposal and sent a representative to visit the island.

In 1851 the British government agreed to pay for the lighthouse provided Guernsey and Jersey would defray the maintenance costs, subject to a maximum of £900 per annum.

The House of Commons got involved, reviewing the costs in 1852 and proposed to add a clause to the 1854 Merchant Shipping Bill.

Guernsey objected to the proposed removal of their 1204 rights of self taxation and the Privy Council relented and asked what the Channel Islands would contribute, £100 p.a.

The cost of construction, measured by the number of days it was possible to access the rocks, decided the issue with Le Bisseau chosen.

This system of dovetailing also affords great protection to both horizontal and vertical joints against the wash of the sea when the work is first set.

[4]: 58 The foundation stone was laid on 14 August 1860 by the Bailiff of Guernsey with several Jurats also present as well as a crowd on a flotilla of local boats.

[4]: 61  It was a sixteen-sided revolving catadioptric optic of the first-order, which displayed a red flash every forty-five seconds and was visible at 13 nmi (24 km).

The red colour was achieved through fitting a ruby glass chimney over the multi-wick oil lamp at the centre of the lens.

[12] From 1915 an explosive fog signal was sounded in addition to the bell: it consisted of a gun-cotton charge electrically fired.

If needed it would be let off every 2+1⁄2 minutes, each charge had to be hung outside the tower from a jib, which was wound up to avoid the blast breaking the glass.

German forces occupied the lighthouse in July 1940 but it was not lit again until September 1945, after the liberation, because the optic had been slightly damaged by gunfire.

[4]: 81  The funding of the lighthouse has now reversed, with Guernsey bearing the maintenance cost and Trinity House paying a nominal £1,000 per annum.