The first record of the castle is dated 2 August 1389, when its occupants, Conrad Hans and Ulrich of Egloffstein zu Bärenfels had to concede their outer bailey, the so-called Lower Fortress, as a fief following a feud with the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg. The castle had, however, been built much earlier, probably in 1330 by Siboto I of Egloffstein, progenitor of the Bärenfels line of this family. In 1483 the fief went to the Gaillenreuth line of the Egloffsteins, who did not hold it for long however, because in 1495 the last enfeoffment was granted by the Leuchtenberg landgrave. After the castle had been razed in the Peasants' War in 1525 by Egloffstein's subjects, it was never completely repaired again. In 1580 the Barony of Bärnfels together with its castle ruins was sold to the Bishopric of Bamberg and was seized by the Bavarian state in 1802 as part of the secularisation in Bavaria. Because large parts of the castle were in danger of collapse, it was demolished in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1877 Nuremberg chemist, Kleemann, bought the site and had the few surviving remains restored. After a further renovation was carried out in 1969 by the municipality of Bärnfels it was able to be made accessible to visitors again. Today the castle ruins of Bärnfels are once more owned by the Egloffstein family, whose ancestor probably once built the castle.
Literature
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundriss-Lexikon. Flechsig Verlag, Würzburg, 2000,, p. 91.
Ursula Pfistermeister: Wehrhaftes Franken. Band 3: Burgen, Kirchenburgen, Stadtmauern um Bamberg, Bayreuth und Coburg. Verlag Hans Carl, Nuremberg, 2002,, pp. 24–25.
Walter Heinz: Ehemalige Adelssitze im Trubachtal. Verlag Palm und Enke, Erlangen and Jena, 1996,, pp. 40–57.
Gustav Voit, Brigitte Kaulich, Walter Rüfer: Vom Land im Gebirg zur Fränkischen Schweiz - Eine Landschaft wird entdeckt. Verlag Palm und Enke, Erlangen, 1992,, pp. 96–99.
Gustav Voit, Walter Rüfer: Eine Burgenreise durch die Fränkische Schweiz. Verlag Palm und Enke, Erlangen, 1991,, pp. 28–32.
Björn-Uwe Abels, Joachim Zeune, et al.: Führer zu archäologischen Denkmälern in Deutschland. Band 20: Fränkische Schweiz. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart, 1990,, pp. 138.
Hellmut Kunstmann: Die Burgen der östlichen Fränkischen Schweiz. Schöningh Verlag, Würzburg, 1965, pp. 404–411.
Toni Eckert, Susanne Fischer, Renate Freitag, Rainer Hofmann, Walter Tausendpfund: Die Burgen der Fränkischen Schweiz. Gürtler Druck, Forchheim o.J.,, pp. 24–27.