It was built into the northern corner of the Roman city walls starting in or shortly after the year 1068, following Exeter's rebellion against William the Conqueror.

[1] The castle is named after the red stone found in the hill, and used in the construction of the original buildings, of which the large early Norman gatehouse is the main remaining feature.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, Gytha, mother of the defeated King Harold, was living in Exeter and this may have caused the city to become a centre of resistance to William the Conqueror.

After Exeter's citizens rejected William's demand that they should swear an oath of fealty to him, he marched to the city in 1068 and laid siege to it for 18 days before it capitulated.

[5] A deep ditch and internal rampart were constructed between the north-western and north-eastern city walls, forming a roughly square enclosure with sides of about 600 feet (180 m).

It has clear elements of Anglo-Saxon architecture, such as long-and-short quoins and double triangular-headed windows, suggesting that it was built very early by English masons on the Normans' orders.

At this early stage the rampart was probably surmounted by a stockade, though two corner turrets were soon built where the bank met the city walls, the western one of which (mistakenly known as "Athelstan's Tower") is still present.

Although Stephen's army moved quickly to besiege the castle, Redvers was able to resist for three months until the failure of his water supply, which had been provided by a well and probably a rainwater cistern.

[15] After Stephen's attack it appears that the advancing technology of siege engines prompted the construction in the late 12th century of an outer bailey.

When last I was at Exeter, The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle, And call'd it Rougemont: at which name I started, Because a bard of Ireland told me once I should not live long after I saw Richmond."

[22] The castle was said to have been badly damaged during the Second Cornish uprising of 1497 when Perkin Warbeck and 6,000 Cornishmen entered the city, and by 1600 it was said to display "gaping chinks and an aged countenance.

This lodge was threatened by the unsafe wall and during works to make it safe, excavations in its floor revealed a number of human skeletons which were assumed to have been buried in the grounds of the chapel.

[35] Notable hearings in the Old Law Courts in the 20th century included the trial and conviction of an airline pilot, Andrew Newton, in March 1976, on charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life: the charges resulted from a bungled attempt by Newton to shoot a former male model, Norman Scott, that resulted in the killing of Scott's Great Dane.

[37][38] However difficulties over disabled access on the steep castle site had become a major problem, and new Law Courts were completed in Exeter's legal quarter in 2004.

Following the failure of a scheme for Exeter City Council to purchase the site, it was sold by Her Majesty's Courts Service in early 2007 to GL50 Properties, whose managing director said "Rougemont Castle is an amazing building which we will transform into the Covent Garden of the South West of England.

[39] In 2011, the former Court 1 reopened as the Ballroom, with its arched windows lowered to floor level; lavatories were installed in the former holding cells for prisoners.