The pentagonal bergfried and the massive shield wall in particular point to a construction date of around 1200.

In the first half of the 13th century the castle was enfeoffed to a Kaiserslautern family of ministeriales, the descendants of Reinhard of Lautern, the knight.

A barony belonged to the castle, which covered several villages: the valley settlement of Hohenecken at the foot of the castle hill (Burgberg) as well as Erfenbach, Espensteig, Siegelbach and Stockweiler, today Stockborn.

At the beginning of the early modern period, Hohenecken Castle went into decline.

In 1668 there was a lengthy siege by Prince-Elector Charles Louis of the Palatinate, which ended in the partial destruction of the castle.