It is located in Egmond aan den Hoef in the municipality of Bergen and lies about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of Alkmaar.

When the Abbey lands became too large, the abbot decided to appoint a certain Berwout as steward of these estates in 1129.

Berwout and his descendants lived in a (fortified) farm or manor ("Hoeve") north of the abbey.

This hypotheses could include that the motte was lowered, and that this explains the absence of debris and building remains on the site of the later round water castle.

Renaud and P. Beelaerts van Blokland saw no pressing reasons to suppose that a motte had existed on that site.

[2] Walter I, Lord of Egmond, nicknamed Kwade Wouter got involved in the Loon war, a war of succession over the County of Holland (and its dependency Zeeland) from 1203 until 1206, brought on by the death of count Dirk VII.

During this war, the faction of Louis II, Count of Loon set the fortified manor on fire in 1205.

[4] The main purpose of the circular castle was to serve as a place for refuge and defense in times of peril.

[8] Renaud thought it more likely that this happened during the rebellions after the death of Count Floris V.[9] In both cases a wall fragment retrieved in the northwest moat could be a leftover of the destruction.

The first phase saw the construction of a new small square main castle on the eastern half of the former outer bailey.

It all indicated that brick from the round castle had been reused in the foundations of the tower house and some connected walls.

[8] The northern tip of the old wall with a loose piece of old foundation probably indicates that the court of the third castle was smaller.

John I, Lord of Egmond (1310-1369) married the rich heiress Gyote van IJsselstein.

Near the gate building a sand stone lion and two lead dragons were found during the excavation.

[16] As the Egmond family rose to prominence within the Burgundian Netherlands, they spent more and more time in the south of the Netherlands, e.g. in the Egmont Palace in Brussels, the Egmont castle in Zottegem or the castle in La Hamaide.

[17] Troops led by Diederik Sonoy set both Egmond castle and the abbey on fire in 1573.

The destruction was at the command of the Prince of Orange to prevent the Spanish army from occupying these strategic locations.

Due to debts, he was forced to sell the castle and the surrounding estates to the States of Holland and West Friesland in 1607, who remained the owner for the remainder of the 17th century.

Painters like Meindert Hobbema and Jacob van Ruisdael or sketchers like Roelant Roghman or Cornelis Pronk depicted the ruins in romantic settings or how they imagined the castle looked like in more glorious times.

[18] These paintings are scattered around the world and can be admired in places like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam or the Art Institute of Chicago.

[19] Ms Jacoba van Foreest, married with Mr Tinne, became proprietors of the ruins in 1798.

The loss of the castle ruins started discussions in the Netherlands around heritage awareness and how to treat monuments.

As a result, Brederode castle, the other great ruin in Holland, became one of the first national monuments of the Netherlands.