[1] The lighthouse was essentially just a 12-metre-tall (39 ft) tower on top of which a fire was lit whenever Katwijker fishers were out at sea (they fished for herring off the east coast of England).

The fire was replaced with an oil lamp in the mid-19th century; by the early 1900s there were no fishing vessels from Katwijk and the lighthouse became inactive.

The dunes were fortified in 1702, and to protect the lighthouse (which seemed in imminent danger) a breakwater was built the next year.

[5] The lighthouse was renovated in 1901,[2] and deactivated in 1913, when ships were no longer docking in Katwijk (they went to IJmuiden and Scheveningen).

[6] During World War I it functioned as an observation post for the Royal Netherlands Navy and was manned around the clock by three sailors.