Hogwarts and Environs from the Books

Notes

NOTES ON THE MAP from Charles J. Mize:

My citations, where I could find them, are to page numbers in the American versions.

First of all, the layout of the castle itself, though small, is based on the design used in the movies.  I changed it to this after realizing that, for the most part, the map matches the appearance of things in the movies as well as the books.  But there are obviously a few discrepencies in the castle between book and movie.  In the movie, the Great Hall is on a promontory overlooking the Lake, very attractive in shots.  But the book says Ron "crossed quietly to look through the brightly lit window" from the front steps after walking up the lawn from the Whomping Willow (Chamber76). If the movie is right, I'd like to know what exactly he quietly crossed.  I have no idea from watching the movies where they intended the front door to be.

The front door faces to the west and is at the top of the lawn in the front of the castle, which slopes upward from the Whomping Willow (Chamber76, and other places).

The Greenhouses (and presumably the Vegetable Gardens) are "behind the castle" (Stone133), which I take to mean that they are on the eastern side of the castle opposite the front doors.  On the night they rescue Black, Harry and Hermione "tore across the vegetable gardens to the greenhouses . . . then set off again . . . skirting around the Whomping Willow, tearing toward the shelter of the forest . . ." (Prisoner397).  Though a long walk, this fits the map.  They would cross through the vegetable gardens to wait behind the castle, and then follow that wall around toward the Forest.  I included that wall, again, mimicking the movies, or more appropriately, some of the conceptual artwork included on the DVD.  In addition, the greenhouses are within view of the Whomping Willow, as Harry sees Prof. Sprout returning after mending it while waiting for class (Chamber89).

After sneaking around the castle to the greenhouses, Harry and Hermione then hurry around the lawn (bordered on the map by the little wall) and pass the Whomping Willow before reaching the Forbidden Forest.  They then continue along the edge of the forest until they reach Hagrid's Hut, which is "a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest." (Stone140, and elsewhere).  But, from the Hut, you cannot see the Whomping Willow (Prisoner403), because Harry and Hermione, with Buckbeak, have to move in order to see what happens.  So I presume that Hagrid's Hut and the Willow are on opposite sides of a slight hill; we know the Willow is at the bottom of the lawn, which slopes up to the castle doors (Chamber76) and the same seems to apply to Hagrid's (Prisoner111).  Between Hagrid's Hut and the Whomping Willow, at the top of this hill, is the spot where Harry and Hermione hide with Buckbeak.  It is on the very edge of the Forest, but is still in sight of Hagrid's Hut, the Front Door and the Whomping Willow.  This is the same spot where Lupin enters the forest in the form of a werewolf.  This is denoted by a dotted line and arrow on the map.

Hagrid's Hut is in view of the front steps of the castle, however, because they can see Dumbledore, Fudge and Macnair as they come out (Prisoner399).

There are two other important events we can plot on the map from that night.  Black fled the front lawn after the Dementors arrived, and Harry and Hermione followed him.  They were confronted by the Dementors on the edge of the Lake.  At that same moment a few hours later, Harry left Hagrid's Hut and went to the edge of the Lake where he could see the Dementors converging on Black, and he sends the Patronum to chase them off.  Therefore Black went in the opposite (easterly) direction, away from Hagrid's Hut and the road.

After plotting everything on the map, it would appear that Hagrid's Hut is near the road, and, what more, that the Dementors came up the road past Hagrid's Hut and somehow crossed the lawn while Harry and Hermione were there.  Perhaps, however, they came the other way, from Hogsmeade where we know they were stationed.  I also seem to remember that the Dementors stayed at the gatehouse, because Dumbledore wouldn't let them on school grounds, but I can't find the reference and might be mistaken.  Help me out there if anyone knows.  There is also a reference in "Order of the Phoenix" that suggests that Hagrid's Hut lies along, though at some distance, from the road that follows the edge of the Lake to the Castle, for Harry tries to spot a light in the Hut as he rides up with Ron and Luna and the others in the now Thestral-drawn carriages (Phoenix201).

The Beaxbaton carriage is parked "about two hundred yards from Hagrid's front door" (Goblet263), and Harry passes it as he walks to Hagrid's to see the dragons (Goblet323).

The Forbidden Forest is to the west of the castle, as is mentioned several times toward the end of "Prisoner of Azkaban", where the sun sets over the trees when leaving the Castle (Prisoner327, 397).  Most of the interior of the Forest which we ever see is in "The Sorceror's (Philosopher's) Stone" and "Order of the Phoenix" and to some degree I have been able to match the events of the two books to a similar geography.  There are numerous references to a path that leads into the Forest from the rear of Hagrid's Hut, and I am presuming that these are all the same path.  Based on the description of their adventure searching for Unicorns, we have the path branching at least twice.  First, "a little way in" (Stone251), where Hagrid sends Malfoy one direction with Neville, and then a bit later where Harry and Malfoy find the Unicorn (Stone255).  They walk for "half an hour", following this path.  There is no mention in the books as to whether they go left or right, so I am being arbitrary in that respect on the map.

In between these two forks there is a "clearing" (Stone252) where they encounter the centaurs.  Later, they encounter the centaurs again with Hagrid (Phoenix697) and then with Umbridge (Phoenix753).  It seems likely that this is the same or a nearby clearing.  It is possible that the centaurs have their own paths through the forest, probably known only to themselves, and that this is a spot where they cross Hagrid's path, as they just happen to meet the centaurs there on three separate occasions.  Grawp has been placed according to the description of their journey to see him, but on the map lies along the other branch of the path from where Harry and Malfoy found the Unicorn.  I did this just for convenience, it might not be correct.

There is also a point "about ten minutes" along Hagrid's path (Phoenix444) where Hagrid shows the students the Thestrals.  This isn't really a clearing as shown on the map, for the book describes it as being dark and dense with trees.  This might be close to the spot where they encounter the Thestrals later before taking off for the Ministry.

The dragon pavillion of the first Twiwizard task is located further along the edge of the Forbidden Forest from Hagrid's Hut, out of sight of the Castle and Lake (Goblet325).  And there is also a stable and paddocks where Hagrid keeps most of his bigger animals, such as the hippogriffs.  Hagrid takes the students here to meet them in his first class, and it is described as a five-minute walk along the edge of the forest (Prisoner112), though that's five minutes with a full class of Gryffindors and Slytherins, few of which are anxious to find out where Hagrid is taking them.  There is also a "makeshift paddock" made for the giant Beauxbatons horses, which is said to be near their carriage (Goblet263).  This could be the same paddock, though it appears to be specially made, but would probably be placed in a similar area.  Harry also passes the horses as they go to see the dragons (Goblet323).  Considering this, I may have placed the paddocks on the wrong side of Hagrid's Hut.

The Quiddith pitch is a difficult thing to place.  There are few real references as to where it is in relation to anything else.  There is only one good source, Harry's second game of Quidditch in his first year (Stone225) and his pursuit of Snape after it.  It mentions here that the sun "glints red" in the windows of the castle, as seen from the shed outside the statium.  That means the stadium is not to the east of the castle, for the setting sun could be seen reflected in the windows from either north, south, or especially west, but not east.  In this same scene, and from this same spot, Harry sees Snape leave the front doors of the Castle, which also face to the west (see above), also suggesting that it is not on the eastern side of the Castle.  Harry then takes to his broomstick and flies "over the castle" to follow Snape as he enters the Forbidden Forest to meet with Quirrell.  This suggests that the Quidditch pitch is on the opposite side of the Castle from the Forest, which we know to be west of the Castle (see above).  It can't be both, so I have placed these items in the best arrangement to suit all the descriptions.  The Quidditch statium to the north and slightly west of the Castle and Snape's rendevous at the edge of the forest to the southwest.  This way, Harry, trying not to be seen, might have flown back over the Castle and even the edge of the lake to get from the Quidditch Pitch to that spot of the forest.  But essentially, I just picked an empty spot on the map and put an X there. It could have happened elsewhere.

The only other clue to location is the discovery of Mr Crouch.  But the descriptions in the book only complicate matters.  Harry follows Krum from the stadium, where the maze is growing, not toward the Durmstrang ship, but toward the Forest, past Hagrid's Hut and the Beauxbatons' carriage (Goblet552).  As I have drawn them, the ship and the carriage lie basically in the same direction, but I guess there could be a different path toward Hagrid's Hut than toward the castle and the lakeside.  I am open to advice on this point.

With little more to go on concerning the Quidditch field, I have resorted to looking at the movies, and in particular the "Chamber of Secrets" conceptual artwork (some of which is very good) that was included on the DVD.  That explains the little stream, which I thought I would include, especially as there is mention of "running water" heard in the Forest just before they meet the centaurs in Book One (Stone251).

The Lake lies to the south of the Castle, as Ron mentions seeing it out the window in that direction (Prisoner99), and apparently curves around the castle on each side (this is how it was depicted in the films, to a rather pronounced degree).  The Castle overlooks it from a tall cliff (Stone112) and the first years reach a small stony shore after passing under a curtain of ivy.  In the movies, there appears to be a little boathouse near this shore.  I have drawn the map to match all of these features.

The Durmstrang ship is docked at the edge of the lake near the castle, within view of the front doors, or at least the lawn directly before, for the students and teachers stand here as they watch it arrive from within the lake itself (Goblet246).  It also lies along the road to Hogsmeade, for they watch a skinny Krum diving into the ice-covered lake as they pass it on their way to town (Goblet443).

I have no idea where the stands would have been placed for the second Triwizard task, so I haven't included them.  They are described as being on the opposite shore as Harry comes down to the waterside from the front lawn (Goblet492)

There are a few somewhat randomly placed items on the map.  There is no real indication given in the book as to the position of Aragog in relation to anything else, so I have placed it in a convenient spot in the upper reaches of the forest, but it could be just about anywhere.  Harry and Ron follow the path into the woods from Hagrid's Hut some distance before leaving it to follow the spiders, about "twenty minutes" (Chamber272).  That puts it about twice as far in as the Thestrals were seen.
There are two secret passages shown on the map.  One is the Whomping Willow passage into the Shrieking Shack, the other the passage from Honeydukes' cellar to the statue of the one-eyed witch inside the Castle.  Hogwarts is on the opposite side of the Lake from Hogsmeade, which means either the passages lie underneath the Lake, or they circumvent it altogether, as drawn on the map.  I drew it this way mainly for clarity, as there are already a number of things on or around the Lake.  But they could go underneath the Lake, for the witch passage is described as going down and then sloping back upward (Prisoner195).  But this is in Scotland and lakes in Scotland tend to run very deep.  The witch passage is very long and is described as having "twisted and turned" ; "it took ages . . . what felt like an hour" and that only got us to the point where it started sloping back upwards again.  So either is really a possibility.

Sirius's cavern is described only as being in the mountains beyond Hogsmeade, with the path to it starting beyond the stile at the end of the road.  So it could be north, south, or east of town.  I have drawn it somewhat to the north, just so that I could fit it on the map.  Similarly, I have drawn the Hogwarts Express rails in a convenient and aesthetic place, to border the title of the map.  I don't know how exactly they run.

Charles J. Mize