Sir John Maxwell began a first castle around 1220, and his brother Sir Aymer Maxwell began the present castle on a nearby outcrop, completed in the 1270s. It has a triangular plan, moated, with earthwork ramparts, one of few triangular castles in Europe and the only one in the UK. The early parts are red sandstone, and the gatehouse drum towers rise about 51 feet (15.5 m).
The castle was dismantled in 1312 and partly again around 1355. Robert de Maxwell rebuilt it from 1373 to 1410. Gunpowder destroyed the gatehouse in 1570. The Nithsdale Lodging, finished around 1634, has a Renaissance facade described as the most ambitious early classical domestic architecture in Scotland. The south wall was demolished in 1640 and the castle was never reoccupied.
Historic Environment Scotland cares for it. It is a scheduled monument.
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