Hogwarts in the movies

Here's a map of the castle and the grounds we can see in the films (warning : this version of the castle and its grounds doesn't fit at all with the books !). I found information in SS/f, CS/f, PA/f and GF/f of course, the Bramman's painting (inspired from the movie model - maybe he had access to several legended maps) and two paintings available on the CS/dvd2. But these two paintings are trials and ideas about possible positions and interpretations and all and don't really fit with the final versions of the films. There are also a lot of differences between SS/f and GF/f. Maybe I should redraw the whole map, but it's too fastidious.

This map is approximate, especially for the cliffs, and the scale is not correct at all, because it's quite difficult to determine when you have very short sequences showing the buildings, especially seen from another angle each time. The deepness of a aerial view doesn't help the making of a "plane" map... But the organization of the buildings between them is right, and I don't think I've forgotten anything ; there are just some inconsistencies due to details brought up below. The organization of the legend numbers is also peculiar, but most of the following precisions came step by step.

There are some differences and changes with each movie, especially in CS/f where the greenhouses and the Whomping Willow have been added (and anyway they could have been already present in SS/f); in PA/f where the clock building, the courtyard with the fountain and the long wooden bridge were added (and the moving of the Forest and Hagrid's Hut locations); and in GF/f where the owlery has been added (and outside of the castle). At this point of the movies (the 4th), it became impossible to have the big courtyard where the Whomping Willow was located in CS/f! There are also many differences with the levels, and this map doesn't show them.

The PA/f buildings didn't exist in SS/f and CS/f, even if we never really see the place where they're supposed to stand in the two first movies, because Hogwarts is always shown from South-East but in PA/f, one strongly insists on the South-West view where the new buildings stand. Maybe their location has voluntary been hidden to allow the designers to add other elements when they have other ideas for the next movies... The Hagrid's hut location in PA is completely changed because in SS/f and CS/f the lake continues directly behind the castle that really seems to be on a peak, as we see on the last CS/f image. There's not really any space for them ! In PA/f, the castle is still on a peak but the lake seems to contour the forest and pass behind the castle at last, as we can see Hagrid throwing pebbles (or rather stones) in the water. It seems that Hogwarts is almost at the end of the lake, because Hagrid faces its whole length... But these buildings have been designed for PA/f, they didn't exist before and it's normal to have some inconsistencies, the designer's ideas evolving along the movies and the discoveries of new special effects techniques. That's why my map is a map of the more recent movie, including everything we've seen so far, and not a map of the early movies, because each movie shows new elements that weren't in the previous. I just attempted to put everything we see in the films. I'll be able to make the ultimate map when the 7th movie is realised!

Like I said, there are too much changes, along the movies, creating inconsistencies. That's why my map is approximate. But if we have a look at the arrangement of the elements together (well, the first Hagrid's Hut, forest and Quidditch pitch locations with the castle and lake locations), it completely agrees with JKR's map (PA/DVD2). Just the castle inside doesn't fit with the books, even if it's so wonderful and that JKR said it's quite faithful to what she imagined.

Movie designers haven't done a careful study of the castle of the books, that's a fact. They appointed the concerned places with not much faith to the books (but it is true that we don't have much rigorous descriptions in the Tolkien way) ; they took existing places to place them in the model, and therefore it CAN'T be the "real" Hogwarts. But there are some things they could have respected, like for the Great Hall location compared to the entrance hall and the marble stairs location or the entrance or the Gryffindor tower location in PA/f. But they're movies, and "personal" adaptations, so whatever. There is no clear and accurate answers to my questions, because the models have been designed as the films went, with a more aesthetic than canon research!... But if someone knows where to find photos of the original model (more than we see in the PA/DVD2), just tell me! Maybe I should simply contact Warner Bros. instead of wasting my time...

UPDATE : now that I saw a map of the PA video game, I don't need any clue or help because I noticed my map is almost the same! Great! That's the same pleasure than SVA had when he realized that his Hogwarts and Environs map was almost the same as JKR one! But I'm still quite satisfied with my map and the study that permitted its design, even if now they seem a bit useless.

1. We know where the Greenhouse #3 is, but instead of the greenhouses in SS/f, we just see grass where Filch and our friends (and Draco) go to Hagrid's for their detention (#27).

2. The Hungarian Horntail crashes on the foot of this bridge decorated with lanterns (this bridge not always visible in PA/f). She chases Harry through the whole crack located in the middle of the castle, therefore passing below the previous two bridges.

3. This Dark Tower has been added to lock Sirius in PA/f (a smaller building was there in SS/f and CS/f). In the book, Sirius is locked in Flitwick's office.

4. The new PA/f buildings : the hospital wing - but for the location only, because it makes the link between the clock building and the building with towers on each angle (one of them is the Gryffindor's) in the third movie. Maybe it should have been at the same place as SS/f and CS/f but should've had another entrance... However, it seems to be the same room that was in the first two movies.

5. The new PA/f buildings : the clock building

6. The new PA/f buildings : the courtyard with the fountain and the ruined cloister (I've forgotten two turrets to the angles beside the wooden bridge)

7. The new PA/f buildings : the wooden bridge ended with a little building - this complex is one of the several movie Hogwarts entrances (still there in GF/f), for they take this way to go to Hogsmeade in PA/f (the other entrances are #32 and 39#)

8.New PA/f element : the menhirs where Hermione hits Malfoy

9.New PA/f element : the stairs leading to Hagrid's Hut in PA/f, that should be a bit more perpendicular to the wooden bridge

10. The PA/f's "double" Hagrid's Hut that should be placed a bit lower

11. We can see that this tower is the Gryffindor's (common room + dormitories) because there's a view of that tower in SS/f before we see H-R-H chatting in the common room (and it seems to fit with Bramman's painting). From PA/f, Harry can see Hagrid's hut at last by his dormitory window, as in the books (even if the former location was more accurate)

12. The Great Hall we always see in the general views; the Great Table is on the left.

13. These dotted lines evoke the cliff sketching of SS/f and CS/f (but here again nothing is sure...)

14. In SS/f, we should find at the top of this building the statue Neville was hanging from momentarily during his first disastrous flying lesson

15. In this big stretch of grass in SS/f, the first years have their first flying lessons and Harry and Wood practice Quidditch. It's not very clear and doesn't really fit with the Whomping Willow and all in CS/f, and I think it's too big on my map. In fact, it should be a lot bigger and include the Quidditch pitch to fit with JKR's, as the grounds are surrounded by walls, walls that could be of that kind. The views of this place have been shot in Alnwick Castle, Northumberland (the first flying lesson and the Wood practice in SS/f and the Whomping Willow scene in CS/f)

16. Many things happen in this courtyard and its cloister (it's a bit like their "playtime court", but only in the two first movies). I made it a lot too big, but I couldn't help it if I wanted the rest to fit (this cloister is in Lacock Abbey, England). The Transfiguration classroom is around this cloister, and maybe the entrance to Dumbledore's office too (the Griffin) (cf. 37), where Harry frees Dobby and Lucius Malfoy leaves Hogwarts by a door opposite, leading to crenels and the outside - but we don't really know where the main entrance is!... We also see crenels in the courtyard, but there's no courtyard with all these details together... So I don't really think Dumbledore's office entrance is in that cloister (see #37). In SS/f, we can see the Trophies (there's no room for them at this point of the movies) and the DADA classroom in SS/f. From CS/f, the DADA classroom in #42, under the roof.

17. I don't really know how this complicated building looks; most of the towers are right but it changed a lot through the movies. It changes a bit in CS/f and begins to look like the clock building in PA/f (q.v. the roof). Maybe we can find the library there- we see ramparts by the windows (CS/f). When Harry looks for Nicholas Flamel in the Restricted Section (during the night in SS/f), he directly finds Snape and Quirrell in the famous cloister (#16). It's very likely that the Library is in that building because the cloister is beside it. It's also clear that McGonagall's office is in there, accorded to the Remembrall scene.

18. This Quidditch pitch location is only valid for SS/f and fits with JKR's map - maybe it's a bit too far or too close to the castle - but without exact scale, I can't determine it. The CS/f and PA/f pitches are closer to the castle (#34 and #40). The little stadium erected for the first task, the amphitheatre and the maze erected for the third task in GF/f are somewhere over there, but the first task stadium is more in the north-west, on rocky hills.

19. The Dark Forest in SS/f, CS/f and on JKR's map

20. The Dark Forest in PA/f. Its location has totally changed because it's still behind Hagrid's hut that also has its location changed. In the two first movies, it faced the two big towers inspired from Durham cathedral (highly modified in PA/f). Instead of his hut, we see a big valley filled with small rivers (q.v. the Harry's flight on Buckbeak in Care of Magical Creatures). In fact, it seems that the peak where the castle stands is at the end of a valley making a non symmetrical T with the lake, which the end fits between CS/f and PA/f.

21. The direction of the Hogsmeade Station fits with the JKR's map but not the village. The station and the direction taken by the train at the end of SS/f (south) fits with the reality too. Somewhere there may be the path taken by the carriages to lead the students to the castle on the 1st September in PA/f

22. In SS/f and CS/f, the Hagrid's Hut and the Dark Forest location fit better with the JKR's map

23. The Whomping Willow in CS/f

24. The PA/f's Whomping Willow seems to be somewhere there downwards, quite far actually - it seems to have a lot of land added in this portion (where there's the lake in the first two movies). I located it regarding the view we have of the Great Hall. It's relatively isolated.

25. The Lake

26. Cliffs (there we can see a hollow going under three bridges and extended with grass under the wooden bridge in PA/f - this hollow separates the castle in two parts - we can imagine, the lower part, for living : the Houses (4 towers in a building - not faithful to the books, don't forget), the hospital wing and the Great Hall - the second section for working : all the classrooms, the greenhouses and the library (that could explain the fact they're always in #16 and another courtyard located just before #32 in SS/f (the scar hurting episode) and CS/f (the Ford Anglia episode) - courtyards quite far from their tower)

27. Grass

28. Trees

29. Grass (in PA/f)

30. These two towers have been redesigned in PA/f ; they're inspired from the Durham Cathedral in England. The shape of the building behind them is also inspired from the cathedral. On the centre of the "crown" we have a round tower with a squared base. This tower has 4 other round towers on each angle. I don't know what we can find in that building; it looks too much like a church. In CS/f, we can see the greenhouses at the base of these two towers. In SS/f, there is directly the grass (#27). In PA/f, we find another valley.

31. Grass, trees and hills ; maybe a path to go to the CS/f Quidditch pitch (cf. the CS/DVD2 paintings)

32. We can find here small buildings with a porch taken by the Ford Anglia escaping to the woods - it fits with Hagrid's Hut location - they take the same porch to go to their detention and after the scar hurts in SS/f (again in Alnwick castle). This entrance is once of the several movie Hogwarts entrances, along with #7 and #39.

33. The locker rooms are on that side of the Quidditch field

34. CS/f Quidditch stadium (very close from the castle!)

35. This wall is not there in SS (the Whomping Willow neither). It appeared in CS/f with the greenhouses (but there's NOTHING clear!) and it should be in the center of the famous courtyard (#16) (see PA/f), but it was difficult to get it centred.

36. The Boathouse, according to Bramman. I suppose it's the building where the 1st years' boats are stored each year from September to September. We can see stairs along the cliffs leading to #39

37. According to Bramman, the marble stairs should be at the base of this tower we always see in the large shots. The moving stairs should follow, in the whole tower. When we see the Gryffindors going to their dormitories at the beginning of SS/f, they take the moving stairs, then take at least one corridor to get to their tower. So it should be consistent, except in PA/f, where the Fat Lady portrait is among the stairs, which falsifies everything, since the Gryffindor tower is located on #11 in ES/f as in GF/f (all this to add a useless and not funny scene, without thinking about the consistency!) Plus, the stairs are linked to many corridors, while 3/4 of the tower are not linked to any building. Anyway, Hogwarts is supposed to be a magical building, and we don't know exactly if the stairs stops on the ground level.
The divination class is on the top of a very big tower, but which one? Maybe this tower? I don't think so, actually... Last chance to know will be OP/f!
In GF/f, the Trophy Room replaces the little room located left of the staff table. It seems to be somewhere under this big tower.
In GF/f, Harry is in serious trouble on the roof of this tower, chased by the Hungarian Horntail. He succeeds in getting back on his broomstick, flies away and turns to #30 and then to #13 and passes below the two bridges to escape the dragon, defeating her by flying through the third bridge's arches (#2).

38. GF/f shows us that Dumbledore's office and residence constitute the three turrets attached to the biggest tower of the castle (#37): the first turret for the portraits, the curious instruments and the Pensieve, the second for the office itself, Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, and the third for, upstairs, Dumbledore's personal observatory, and his bedroom-lounge downstairs). The Bramman picture already implied it. This location for the office could fit with Lucius Malfoy's departure at the end of CS/f via a place "similar" to #39...
So far, PA/f is the only movie that doesn't show Dumbledore's office. Actually, it does! The classrom lit by spine-shaped candles in which Lupin teaches Harry how to repel the Dementors is in fact the original Dumbledore's office set, the objects decorating it having just been replaced. They could have found another set, because one can recognize the office without any problem. Too bad!

39. Here's the little building extending the Great Hall in which it would be logical to find the marble stairs where, for example, McGonagall greets the first years in SS/f (I forgot to draw a little turret located between this building and the Great Hall, on the rooftop, and another turret located more or less above the staff table (#12). On the other hand, in PA/f, this small building became a little courtyard. So, as I said in #7, this place seems to be one of the several movie Hogwarts entrances, along with #7 and #32

40. These are the greenhouses in CS/f and PA/f

41. The PA/f stadium, even if we have difficulty seeing parts of the castle with all that rain, is more or less at the same place than the CS/f one, but a bit lower. So, I don't really know until we see the location of the new Forest in PA/f... (yeah right, that makes a lot of stadiums on the map, I know!)

42. We can find here the CS/f, PA/f et GF/f DADA class, located under the roof. The building is flanked with two turrets. The first one serves as the stairs, the other one, on the opposite of the class, is the teacher's office. GF/f gives its precise location.

43. In the center of this crown formed by this building stands a round tower with a squared base, becoming a fully squared tower in PA/f. This tower is flanked by four other round towers on each angle. They are a bit smaller in PA/f

44. Here's the only really additional GF/f element (the first task stadium, the second task platforms and the third task amphitheatre and maze being temporary constructioned) : the owlery, that was isolated from the rest of the castle, instead of being a part of it (in the West Tower).

map and research © 2004-2006 Quentin Lowagie