Powderham Castle is situated within the parish and former manor of Powderham, within the former hundred of Exminster, Devon, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the city of Exeter and ¹⁄₄ mile (0.4 km) north-east of the village of Kenton, where the main public entrance gates are located. It is situated on flat, formerly marshy ground on the west bank of the River Exe estuary where it is joined by its tributary the River Kenn. On the opposite side of the Exe is the small village of Lympstone. At some time after 1390 the mediaeval core of the present structure was built by Sir Philip Courtenay (d.1406), the 5th or 6th son of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (d.1377). The Earls of Devon were seated at Tiverton Castle until 1556, and their cousins of this cadet line known as "Courtenay of Powderham" continued to exist in parallel, not always on amicable terms, as prominent county gentry, arguably the leading and most prestigious gentry family of Devon, actively engaged in the local administration of Devon as JP's, sheriffs and MP's. From 1556 on the extinction of the senior line of Courtenay of Tiverton, the Courtenays of Powderham had become retrospectively, as was decided by law in 1831, de jure Earls of Devon, and became de facto Earls from 1831 when the title was confirmed to them in law. They had however shortly before obtained the right to sit in the House of Lords when created Viscounts. The Castle remains in 2014 the seat of the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon.