 The castle and its associated estates belonged at that time to Gerlach of Dollendorf, whose family, the "nobles of Dollendorf", resided at their family seat of Dollendorf-Schloßthal Castle near Blankenheim from 893 to the mid-15th century.At that time the Dollendorfs were one of the oldest and richest noble houses in the region.Gerlach, whose estate in Arloff in 1278 was enfeoffed to him by the Archbishop of Cologne, Siegfried, had already been forced to do likewise with the castle and its estates belonging to the Dollendorfs in the neighbouring village of Kirspenich.