Everyone watched the popular fantasy series Harry Potter franchise, except if you are coming directly from a cave. After watching the wizarding world, you must have been wondering how these scenes were shot, where are Hogwarts scenes filmed in Harry Potter, don’t you? Keeping the storyline aside, let us visit today the places where our favorite wizard franchise, Harry Potter is filmed.
The famous British set designer, Norman Stuart Craig, was behind the development and creation of the Harry Potter set. Craig along with Stephine McMillan has not only created iconic set pieces like Ministry of Magic, the Chamber of Secrets, and Malfoy Manor but also built Horcrux Cave with the help of CGI.
A young boy, Harry Poter portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, lives along with his magicless (Muggle) ant and uncle after the death of his parents. On his eleventh birthday, a half-giant that goes by the name Hagrid portrayed by Robbie Coltrane mysteriously comes to him and informs him that he is not an ordinary child but a wizard and his parents were murdered by the leader of evil wizards, Lord Voldemort portrayed by Ralph Fiennes. Hagrid also added that Voldemort had attempted to kill Harry too when he was just a year old, but because of his killing curse, his magic got rebounded and turned him into a weak and helpless wizard.
As Harry was the reason why Voldemort became helpless and weak, he became extremely famous among the Wizards. He is identified with a mark on his forehead, which was given by the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, when he attempted to kill him. Harry starts learning about magic at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his fellow classmates Ron Weasley portrayed by Rupert Grint and Hermione Granger portrayed beautifully by Emma Watson.
Where Are Hogwarts Scenes Filmed in Harry Potter?
We know at the very least that Hogwarts Castle is located next to a Scottish Loch in a mountainous area surrounded by woods which served as the Forbidden Forest and Muggle eyes look like ruins. We know one hundred percent that it is a Scottish Loch because that has been confirmed, but it is not specified which one because there are many, many lakes.
You might think that where they filmed Harry Potter films would be a good starting point for which lake Hogwarts is actually located at. Well, that ends up not being very reliable because what you see in the movies are actually shots from all over the place, depending on what they needed for that particular scene.
We know for certain that every year on September 1st the Hogwarts Express leaves from 9 3/4 at 11 am sharp and delivers the students to the School after sunset, and according to timeanddate.com, sunset in Scotland on September 1st happens at 08:11 pm. This means that they are on the train for at least nine hours, which by the way, no wonder they are always just starving by the time, they get to the feast. It’s no wonder all Dumbledore says is blubber augment and tweak, if you said anything else people would ride because they are starving.
Either way, if you leave London you can only head North by train; otherwise, you end up in the ocean, and that will land you somewhere in the vicinity of land and Scotland. That said, it is a fictional railroad they are taking, so it’s hard to give an exact route, and believe me, looking up train speeds is not easy as you might think.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and Sirius Black have been sighted near Duff Town, which Hermione exclaims isn’t far from Hogwarts. When the movie came out, J. K. Rowling had already finished writing Order of the Phoenix, and it’s not like she was not super duper involved in the production of the films, and she would have had to allow this reference to exist. They didn’t have to include it, they didn’t have to say “Duff Town”, they could have said any other fictional wizarding town, but they chose to leave it.
So we are looking for a secluded location, nine hours north of London by train, near Duff Town, surrounded by mountains, lakes, and woods, and there is one super obvious candidate. Welcome to “Cairngorms National Park“.
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