Hogwarts Castle

Hogwarts Castle
Location	Highlands of Scotland
Founded	10th century
Inhabitants	Students and staff (September - June) Ghosts House-elves
Employed	Professors and other staff House-elves
Book information
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Last appearance	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hogwarts Castle is a seven-storey high building in the Scottish Highlands where Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry educates its students. The building was created in the late tenth century by the celebrated witches and wizards, Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff.

The school is an incredible piece of magical architecture. There are many towers and turrets, and it houses many halls, rooms, corridors, wings and staircases which move to trick the students and staff. The castle is unplottable

Founding

In the late tenth century, four witches and wizards observed there was a need for a school of magic to teach young witches and wizards. They each founded their own school House to champion the witches and wizards who had the skills and traits they prized. Helga Hufflepuff contributed substantially to the founding of the school. She "brought people from different walks of life together to help build Hogwarts". Helga created many recipes for food which continued to be served at Hogwarts even a thousand years later. She brought house-elves live and work in the Hogwarts kitchens, and Hogwarts became the only place at the time to treat them in a kind manner.

The founders lived and taught in harmony for many years until Salazar Slytherin argued with the others. He thought the school should only teach Pure-blood students but they didn't agree. Slytherin left the school after building a secret chamber under the school. He left inside it a Basilisk to one day purge the school of Muggle-born students.

Education

Coat of Arms

Hogwarts is a boarding school which students attend for seven years. The are sorted into one of four Houses which is like their family. They study seven subjects for two years and then choose at least another two in their third year for their O.W.L.s. They then choose what they wish to continue studying for their N.E.W.T.s if they have received a pass grade in their O.W.L.s.

Ghosts

Hogwarts Castle is a very haunted dwelling. There are four ghosts for each House, Nearly Headless Nick, the Bloody Baron, Fat Friar and The Grey Lady, who is the daughter of founder Rowena Ravenclaw. A poltergeist called Peeves causes havoc in the school. There is a Professor Cuthbert Binns who teaches History of Magic, and a former student who was killed by the Serpent of Slytherin.

Structure

Hogwarts is constructed on a cliff overlooking a very large lake. There are seven floors constructed using resources including stone, oak doors, wooden beams, iron frames and marble. It is obvious it could only be held together by magic.

The magical ever-changing building where rooms switch around is the invention of founder Rowena Ravenclaw. The idea of building an accurate floor plan is nearly impossible to achieve but many rooms and secret passageways are known to stay put. There are 142 staircases which are rickety, wide, narrow or sweeping. There are walls pretending to be doors. There are doors which will not open until spoken to in a polite manner. There are dungeons and basements, sloping lawns and a boat house.

The castle is enchanted to look like old ruins to outsiders. There is a sign that reads "DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE". Other enchantments render the castle Unplottable, and prevents apparition.

Layout

Entrance

Entrance doors

There are two ways of getting to the entrance to the school. The students in their second year and above take a path from Hogsmeade station, where there are at least a hundred carriages waiting outside. These take students down a long, sloping drive to the front gates of the school which are wrought-iron and flanked by two stone columns topped with winged boars.

The entrance to the castle is through large great oak doors which are at the top of a stone staircase. The oak doors open up into the cavernous Entrance Hall lit with torches. These front doors can learn to recognise a person if necessary.

First year students take a steep, narrow path to the lake and take magical boats over the Lake to an underground cavern of rocks and pebbles. They walk along a nearby passageway until they reach stone steps which lead up to the oak door. The large Entrance Hall is a cavernous stone hall with a very high ceiling. The ground floor has a door which leads to an empty chamber off the hall, and a pair of double doors lead to the Great Hall. There is a marble staircase leading up to the upper floors.

Great Hall

There are four long tables for each house with golden plates and goblets. There are thousands and thousands of candles in mid-air. The ceiling is bewitched with many themes which change from day to day to match the sky outside. At the top of the Hall is another long table where the teachers are seated on the High Table. The Head of Hogwarts is seated in the center of the table on the golden chair.

Gryffindor Tower

The way from the Great Hall to the Gryffindor Tower is up a marble staircase and through many corridors of hanging portraits, two doorways hidden by sliding panels and hanging tapestries and many staircases. At the end of a corridor is the portrait of the Fat Lady which swings open into a cosy, round room of armchairs.

There are at least two doors, one leading to the girls dormitory and one to the boys dormitory which is at the top of a spiral staircase. There are four poster beds with red velvet curtains. The girls staircase will turn into a slide if anyone else tries to walk up them. The common rooms had a bulletin board for things like school notices, there is a large fireplace and a window which overlooks part of the school grounds.

Staircases

There are 142 staircases which range from sweeping to rickety, stone or wide staircases. There is a marble staircase in the Great Hall. There are ones which lead to a new place on Friday and others with a trick step where students need to jump.

Corridors

Hogwarts Castle has at least seven known secret passages that lead out of the school into Hogsmeade. The Marauders found them during their time at the school and put them on the Marauder's Map. The known secret passages are:

• Behind a statue of Gregory the Smarmy.
• Behind a statue of a one-eyed witch
• Under the Whomping Willow
• Behind a mirror

Dungeons

The dungeons are through a door in the Entrance Hall and down a staircase. The Potions classroom is at the bottom of the stairs. The dungeons has many rooms including the Slytherin common room.

The grounds

The grounds of Hogwarts Castle are extensive and goes to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid's Hut is on the edge and he has a paddock in the Forest where Care of Magical Creatures takes place. He has a pumpkin outside the hut. There is an underground cavern that has steps leading up to the front doors of the school. There is an Owlery, Herbology greenhouses and a vegetable patch. The grounds have a Quidditch pitch. It has slopping lawns and a wide flat lawn that Flying is taught on.

Author's Notes

Rowling's sketch

Rowling's second sketch

Rowling's sketch of the map of the school provides a better picture of the actual layout of it in Rowling's mind. Hogsmeade station is to the right of the Lake and the boats are through the nearby trees to the left where the Lake is. The other path to the school is around the Lake.

The path takes them around the lake and the grounds of Hogwarts, passing by Hogsmeade village and arriving at the front gates. Hogsmeade is to the north of the school and the school wall goesfrom the north-west of the Lake and around at least part of the Forbidden Forest to the right of the school.