granite dovetailed blocks was laid in June 1899. As well as these blocks, weighing 4,300 tons in total and with a volume of , a further of granite was used to fill the inside of the tower up to the level of the entrance floor above high-water mark. A small steamship, the Ierne, was specially constructed for carrying the blocks out to the island, and Kavanagh personally set every stone, which weighed between 1¾ and 3 tons. The new lighthouse entered service on 27 June 1904 having cost nearly £90,000. The masonry tower is high, but the focal point of the light is above high-water mark. The base of the lighthouse is in diameter with the first course of stone below the high-water mark, and the first ten of the 89 courses built into the rock. The first floor of the original tower remains, on the highest part of the rock, having been left when it was demolished and converted into an oil store. The fog signal was changed to one report every three minutes in 1934 and from 1965 accompanied by a brilliant flash when operated during darkness. The original vaporised paraffin light was replaced with an electric one on 10 May 1969. At the end of March 1989, the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation. It is monitored and controlled using a UHF telemetry link to Mizen Head Lighthouse in County Cork, and onwards by landline to the control centre at Dún Laoghaire. It produces a 0.14-second white flash every five seconds, with a nominal range of and a power of 2,500 kilocandelas. Since April 1978 in addition to being operated during darkness, the light is also used during poor visibility. In 1974 the explosive fog signal was replaced with an electric foghorn producing four blasts every minute at 300 hertz with a nominal range of . Following a review of navigational aids, the fog signal was permanently shut down on 11 January 2011. The Racon – radar transponder beacon – has been a morse G on the radar display since its installation in 1994. In 1985, the lighthouse was struck by a rogue wave about high. On 16 October 2017, a wind gust of was recorded at the lighthouse, during a tropical storm, Hurricane Ophelia. This is an Irish record, based on measurements going back to the 1860s. The previous record was at Malin Head during Hurricane