Schloss Oedenthal, Château in Lüdenscheid, Germany

Schloss Oedenthal is a manor house on a hilltop above the confluence of the Grebbecke and Linnepe streams in northwestern Lüdenscheid. Two wings of different heights flank a massive tower with a plain pyramidal roof, its main portal set in a Tudor arch beneath the von Holtzbrinck coat of arms and topped by an ornamental balcony. The irregular joining of the parts suggests the foundations of the burnt predecessor were reused.

Schloss Oedenthal was first documented in 1160 as Odincdala, then a holding owing dues to the Werden Oberhof Schöpplenberg. From the mid-16th century it passed through several noble families; in 1725 Georg Hermann von Holtzbrinck bought it at auction, and his heirs resided there for about two hundred years. The predecessor of today's house is said to have been a moated castle with a drawbridge; after a fire around 1865 the present buildings were erected, reusing the old foundations.

The name Oedenthal goes back to the 1160 form Odincdala. The lords of Odenthal bore three interlinked rings, the same arms as the von Neuhoff family of Schloss Neuenhof, which suggests a shared lineage. The main portal under the von Holtzbrinck crest opens beneath a decorative balcony on the first floor.

From the B54, a farm track passes the estate toward Heerwiese and Brockhauser Ebene. The Schloss and its mill sit in the Linnepe and Grebbecke valleys and are easily reached on foot via hiking trails from the Hohen Steinert or the former village of Lüdenscheid-Othlinghausen. The Rhein-Ruhr long-distance trail of the Sauerländischer Gebirgsverein touches the castle.

The Oedenthal water mill, a rubble-stone building with a timbered gable, stands directly below the castle and belonged to the estate for about 800 years. In the 1940s water power still drove a threshing machine, a grain mill, a bone mill, a dough mixer and a generator. It is now being converted into a dwelling.