Harry Potter Filming Locations: Every Real Place on One Map

Hogwarts was built in a studio, but a lot of it was borrowed from real buildings first. The eight Harry Potter films were shot across England, Scotland and Wales, in cathedrals, colleges, train stations, London streets and some very wild Highland valleys. Most of them you can visit today, and a few you can visit without even trying, on your way to work.

This map gathers 31 of those places. Each pin says what was filmed there, in which film, and whether you can go inside. The folders follow the story: Hogwarts, Platform 9¾ and the Hogwarts Express, Diagon Alley and Gringotts, the Ministry of Magic and London, Godric's Hollow and Malfoy Manor, and the Forbidden Forest and the wild.

Hogwarts, spread across England

No single building played Hogwarts. Alnwick Castle in Northumberland is where the first flying lesson was filmed, and it appears as the school in the first two films. Gloucester Cathedral lent its fan-vaulted cloisters for corridors, including the scene with the message on the wall in Chamber of Secrets. Durham Cathedral's cloisters are where Harry sets Hedwig free in the snow, and Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire gave its cloisters and rooms to several classrooms.

Oxford deserves a day of its own. At Christ Church, the staircase is where the first-years meet Professor McGonagall, and the college hall inspired the Great Hall set. In the Bodleian, the Divinity School was the hospital wing and Duke Humfrey's Library played the Restricted Section (you can only see it on a guided tour). And the cloister courtyard of New College is where Draco Malfoy is turned into a ferret.

Platform 9¾ and the Hogwarts Express

The platform scenes were filmed at King's Cross, between platforms 4 and 5, and today a trolley disappearing into the wall waits in the concourse for photos. For the outside of the station in Chamber of Secrets, the crew used the far more dramatic Gothic front of St Pancras next door.

Then the train heads north. The curved Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Highlands is the one the Hogwarts Express crosses in several films, chased by the flying car. A steam train still runs over it in summer, and the viewpoint above it is where everyone stands at departure time. Goathland station, on a heritage railway in Yorkshire, was Hogsmeade station in the first film.

Diagon Alley and wizarding London

In London, Leadenhall Market was used for the streets around the Leaky Cauldron in the first film, while a shopfront by Borough Market became the pub's entrance in Prisoner of Azkaban. The marble hall of Australia House was Gringotts. It is an embassy, so you admire it from the pavement.

The city keeps appearing: the Millennium Bridge collapses at the start of Half-Blood Prince, the Knight Bus squeezes between two buses on Lambeth Bridge, Harry talks to a snake in the London Zoo Reptile House, and Claremont Square has the row of houses used for 12 Grimmauld Place.

The wild places

The later films went outdoors. Glen Coe is the valley around Hagrid's hut in Prisoner of Azkaban, and Steall Falls in Glen Nevis is behind Harry's flight from the dragon in Goblet of Fire. In the Deathly Hallows films, Harry and Hermione camp on the limestone above Malham Cove, Dumbledore rests on a small island in Loch Eilt, and Shell Cottage stood on the beach at Freshwater West in Wales. Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is the outside of Malfoy Manor.

And if you want to see the actual sets, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour at Leavesden, where all eight films were made, is on the map too.

How to use the map

Every pin has hashtags for the film it appears in (#philosophersstone, #chamberofsecrets, #prisonerofazkaban and so on), the story place, and #visitable when you can walk in or walk past freely. Filter on one film to follow it, or combine #hogwarts and #visitable for an easy day out. One honest note: the photos on the pins are illustrations of the real places, not stills from the films.

The map is free and public. Copy it into your own Ikuzo account, keep the places on your route, add your own finds, and the trip planning is mostly done. No spells required.