The municipality lies in the Hunsrück south of the Idar Forest on the Deutsche Edelsteinstraße (“German Gem Road”) in the Naheland, roughly 10 km north of Idar-Oberstein.

At the foot of this stronghold on the so-called Herren-Stein (“Lord’s Stone”) arose a village, as so often happened when a castle was built in the Middle Ages.

The castle and the village belonged then to the Counts of Sponheim, and Herrstein grew in importance as the seat of a Sponheim Oberamtmann The exact time when the village was first settled is lost in the mists of history, but on 9 April 1279, Herrstein had its first documentary mention along with a knight named Ruther von Heresteyn.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, they had rather the opposite effect to the originally intended one, provoking enemies’ attacks instead, for it was believed that the town must harbour considerable booty.

The Schinderhannesturm, a tower in Herrstein, gets its name from Schinderhannes (Johannes Bückler), Germany's most famous robber, who was locked up there for one night in 1798.

The legacy of this time of meagre growth, however, had an unexpected advantage: nowhere else in the Nahe-Hunsrück area was there a mediaeval town that was so well preserved.

[7] The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[8] Hankel is a word that has been used as a nickname for Herrstein's inhabitants.