It is the second lighthouse to be built on Carn Bras, the highest of the Longships islets which rises 39 feet (12 m) above high water level.

[2] In the second half of the 18th century, Trinity House was petitioned repeatedly by ship owners for a lighthouse to be built on one of the rocks off Land's End.

Trinity House sought a leaseholder, who would be responsible for building the tower and maintaining the light in return for the right to levy dues on passing ships.

The lease was eventually granted, for a period of fifty years, to a Lieutenant Henry Smith (who had previously been involved in trying to establish a beacon on the rocks).

[3] Work on site began in 1793; however, Smith underestimated the time required and costs involved, and struggled to raise sufficient funds (since the levying of dues depended on the lighthouse being operational).

[11] The lens array, itself over 9 feet (2.7 m) tall, was placed on a 4-foot-9-inch (1.45 m) pedestal within the lantern; the light source was an eight-wick 'Douglass' oil lamp, powered by colza.

[4] The tower was first lit in December 1873, having cost £43,870 to build,[10] and displayed a fixed white light with two red sectors (to warn ships away from the Brisons, to the north-east, and Rundlestone, to the south-east).

In 1967 the light was electrified and the tower modified: the 1873 optic was removed and in its place a pair of Lister diesel generator sets were installed on the old lamp room floor (occupying the lower part of the lantern).

[4] Above them an additional floor was inserted to support a new (reduced height) first-order dioptric optic, with an electric lamp replacing the old paraffin burner.

[2] Seaward flashes are white but they become red – due to tinted sectors – for any vessel straying too close to either Cape Cornwall to the north or Gwennap Head to the south-southeast.