Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, gave the land to Nigel of Cotentin, who built the first castle at Halton, a wooden motte and bailey begun in 1071. The current sandstone castle replaced it in the 13th century. The article names no architect. The Barons of Halton used it as their seat until the 14th century, and it later belonged to the Duchy of Lancaster.
A new gate tower was built from 1450 to 1457. Royalists held the castle in the Civil War and surrendered after several weeks in 1643, and a council of war ordered the defenses dismantled in 1646. By 1650 it was described as very ruinous. Henry Sephton and John Orme built a courthouse on the site of the medieval gatehouse in 1737.
The Duchy of Lancaster owns the castle. It is Grade I listed and a scheduled monument.
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