Its eponymous village is grouped around the castle, high above the left bank of the Eckbach at an elevation of about 300 metres above sea level.

Its name, like that of its sister castle, Altleiningen five kilometres to the southwest, is derived from the Frankish noble family, the counts of Leiningen, who ruled the territory of Leiningerland.

Local poet, Paul Münch, described this historical episode in his Palatine poem Die Gräfin Eva vun Neileininge.

In the wake of the French Revolution the castle ruins were seized by secular authorities and passed in 1804 into the hands of the municipality of Neuleiningen, who, sold it just four years.

The castle is of the so-called quadrangular type, with a rectangular ground plan and defensive towers projecting beyond the curtain walls.

The most striking feature of the castle is the stepped gable of the palas on the north side which, in its present guise, goes back to Landgrave Hesso of Leiningen (before 1435–1467).

From the observation tower of the castle there is an outstanding view of the Upper Rhine Valley to the east, the mountains of the Palatinate Forest to the south and west and the massif of the Donnersberg to the northwest.

In the direction of Mannheim it appears against the backdrop of the densely populated Rhine valley whilst, 20 km behind the castle silhouette, is the well-lit BASF factory in Ludwigshafen.