Lighthouse statistics show how navigational aids combine engineering, geography and maritime history. The figures below cover United Kingdom service assets in 2024/25, selected tower specifications, nominal light ranges, optical equipment, flash characteristics and construction or automation milestones. Current station specifications are reported as displayed on the cited pages accessed on October 1, 2026; historical dates are not 2026 measurements.
Contents
- United Kingdom lighthouse service inventory
- Tower and focal-plane heights
- Light elevation and nominal range
- A comparison of selected stations
- Optics, flash patterns and intensity
- Construction, electrification and automation
United Kingdom lighthouse service inventory
Trinity House’s 2024/25 Report and accounts separates assets deployed from assets owned. That distinction matters: a service inventory is not simply a count of lighthouse buildings. The wider navigational system includes lightvessels, buoys and beacons as well as lighthouses.
In 2024/25, Trinity House deployed 65 lighthouses and owned 63 lighthouses. The same report records 7 deployed lightvessels and 9 owned lightvessels. For floating and fixed aids beyond lighthouse towers, it deployed 447 buoys and owned 730 buoys, while the deployed and owned beacon counts were both 18.
| Asset type | Deployed in 2024/25 | Owned in 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Lighthouses | 65 | 63 |
| Lightvessels | 7 | 9 |
| Buoys | 447 | 730 |
| Beacons | 18 | 18 |
The figures should be read as two different operational views. “Deployed” describes assets placed into service, while “owned” describes the ownership inventory. The difference is especially visible for buoys: 447 were deployed compared with 730 owned. The lighthouse figures are closer together, with 65 deployed and 63 owned.
Tower and focal-plane heights
Tower height and focal-plane height are related but not interchangeable. A tower is a physical structure; the focal plane is the elevation of the light’s optical center. The National Park Service’s Lighthouse Traveling Trunk Activity Guide, a 2022 guide, gives both measurements for five North Carolina lighthouses.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is listed at 196 feet tall, with a focal plane at 191 feet. Bodie Island Lighthouse is 174 feet tall and has a 156-foot focal plane. Cape Lookout Lighthouse is 169 feet tall, with its focal plane at 156 feet. Currituck Lighthouse is 168 feet tall and has a 158-foot focal plane. Ocracoke Lighthouse is much shorter at 76 feet, with a focal plane at 75 feet.
The same stations are not represented by one universal measurement convention in every source. A current Cape Hatteras Light Station specification from the National Park Service lists the tower at 193.20 feet from ground to peak, 198.49 feet from ground to the top of the lightning rod, and 192.2 feet from mean sea level to the light. It also gives the base diameter as 37 feet 5 inches at the bottom and the column height as 147 feet 4.25 inches.
Those Cape Hatteras values describe different reference points, so they should not be treated as contradictions or combined into a single height. The 196-foot value in the 2022 guide, the 193.20-foot ground-to-peak value, and the 198.49-foot lightning-rod value measure different endpoints or come from different specifications.
Trinity House station pages provide tower heights in metres for five additional lighthouses. Smalls Lighthouse has a 41-metre tower, Dungeness Lighthouse a 43-metre tower, Longstone Lighthouse a 26-metre tower, Lizard Lighthouse a 19-metre tower and Farne Island Lighthouse a 13-metre tower. These are current specifications as displayed on the accessed pages, rather than historical construction measurements.
Light elevation and nominal range
The elevation of the light above Mean High Water helps explain why lighthouse statistics often distinguish tower height from light height. Trinity House lists the light at Lizard Lighthouse at 70 metres above Mean High Water, compared with 40 metres at Dungeness, 36 metres at Smalls, 27 metres at Farne Island and 23 metres at Longstone.
The corresponding nominal light ranges are 26 nautical miles for Lizard, 21 nautical miles for Dungeness, 18 nautical miles for Smalls, 18 nautical miles for Longstone and 10 nautical miles for Farne Island. “Nominal range” is a station specification; it is not a guarantee that every observer will see the light at that distance in every condition.
The National Park Service’s USDI/NPS NRHP Multiple Property Documentation Form provides historical technical reference values for theoretical geographical range under good conditions. A focal plane 100 feet above sea level corresponds to 11.5 nautical miles; 250 feet corresponds to 18.2 nautical miles; and 350 feet corresponds to 21.5 nautical miles. The same reference says that the most powerful lenses discussed could be seen up to 26 miles, but would require towers over 500 feet high.
These NPS figures are engineering reference values under good conditions, not forecasts and not universal observed ranges. They also use focal-plane elevation, whereas station pages may describe a nominal range alongside Mean High Water elevation. Keeping the measurement basis visible is essential when comparing stations.
Cape Hatteras has an official light range of 24 nautical miles in the current National Park Service Cape Hatteras Light Station specification. That value is a station-specific official range and should be kept separate from the historical theoretical examples above.
A comparison of selected stations
The following compact comparison keeps the current Trinity House specifications together. Tower height, light elevation and nominal range use the units and reference wording shown on the station pages.
| Lighthouse | Tower | Light above Mean High Water | Nominal range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lizard | 19 m | 70 m | 26 nautical miles |
| Dungeness | 43 m | 40 m | 21 nautical miles |
| Smalls | 41 m | 36 m | 18 nautical miles |
| Longstone | 26 m | 23 m | 18 nautical miles |
| Farne Island | 13 m | 27 m | 10 nautical miles |
The table demonstrates why tower height alone is not enough to describe navigational performance. Lizard has the smallest tower in this group but the highest listed light elevation and the longest nominal range. Dungeness has the tallest tower in the group, while Farne Island has the shortest tower and the shortest nominal range. The elevations use Mean High Water as the stated reference, not a common ground-to-light measurement.
Optics, flash patterns and intensity
Lighthouse identity is also encoded in the optical apparatus and the rhythm of the light. Smalls uses a 1st-order catadioptric optic and flashes three times every 15 seconds, written as Fl (3) 15s. Its listed intensity is 39,800 candela, according to the current Trinity House Smalls Lighthouse specification.
Longstone uses a small 3rd-order catadioptric twin spectacle lens. Its characteristic is one flash every 20 seconds, Fl 20s, and its listed intensity is 116,000 candela, according to the Longstone Lighthouse specification.
Lizard uses a 2nd-order four-panel catadioptric optic. It flashes every 3 seconds, Fl 3s, and its station page lists a nominal range of 26 nautical miles. The Lizard Lighthouse specification is the source for those current station details.
Farne Island shows two white/red flashes every 15 seconds, Fl (2) WR 15s. Its listed intensity is 1,650 candela, and the Farne Island Lighthouse specification records that the station was electrified in 1996. The color notation is part of the light’s identification pattern, not an interchangeable alternative to the flash count.
Dungeness uses a 4th-order catadioptric four-panel rotating optic. It flashes every 10 seconds, Fl 10s, and has a listed intensity of 134,000 candela, according to the Dungeness Lighthouse specification.
The intensity figures vary substantially among the stations: 1,650 candela at Farne Island, 39,800 at Smalls, 116,000 at Longstone and 134,000 at Dungeness. These are listed intensities from the station specifications. They should not be converted into a ranking of real-world visibility without adding the relevant optical, atmospheric and geometric conditions.
Construction, electrification and automation
The selected stations span more than two centuries of construction and modernization. Lizard Lighthouse was built in 1752, Longstone in 1826, Farne Island in 1811, Smalls in 1861 and Dungeness in 1961. These historical dates come from the current Trinity House station pages and are presented as historical milestones, not 2026 measurements.
Smalls Lighthouse’s present structure took five years to build and was automated in 1987. Longstone was electrified in 1952 and automated in 1990. Lizard was electrified in 1924 and automated in 1998. Farne Island was automated in 1910 and electrified in 1996; Trinity House also records that one smaller Farne light was discontinued. Dungeness was built and automated in 1961.
| Lighthouse | Built | Electrified | Automated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lizard | 1752 | 1924 | 1998 |
| Farne Island | 1811 | 1996 | 1910 |
| Longstone | 1826 | 1952 | 1990 |
| Smalls | 1861 | — | 1987 |
| Dungeness | 1961 | — | 1961 |
The dates do not form a single uniform modernization sequence. Farne Island’s listed automation date precedes its electrification date, while Longstone’s electrification precedes automation by several decades. Smalls and Dungeness have no electrification date supplied in the cited facts, so no date is added here. The safest reading is station by station: construction, electrical conversion and automation were separate milestones recorded at different times.