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Are you a Harry Potter fan? Then Edinburgh is the perfect city for you! Everything you need to discover the wizarding world in real life is there. You will find amazing Harry Potter places in Edinburgh including Harry Potter shops, bars and sources of inspiration.
But first, let’s discover why Edinburgh is linked to Harry Potter!
It all started in 1993 when Joan Rowling moved from Porto to Edinburgh with her daughter Jessica. Back then, life was not kind to her. She had an abusive husband and was living with him and their daughter in Portugal. When she finally managed to leave him, she decided to come back home to the UK.
Although JK Rowling is from England, she chose Scotland. Her sister was living in Edinburgh at the time and as we all know, when things go wrong we want to know with people we love and love us back.
JK Rowling didn’t really know Edinburgh but yet made it her home. She shaped her vision of Harry Potter in Edinburgh. The city influenced her more than we could imagine.
Of course, her previous experiences were a source of inspiration as well. In the books, you will find elements inspired by Edinburgh, London and Porto. There are plenty of Harry Potter locations in the world, but if you love the original books, Edinburgh is for you!
BeeLoved City tells you everything you need to know about Harry Potter in Edinburgh.
Harry Potter Tours of Edinburgh
The best way to discover the world of Harry Potter in Edinburgh is to go on a walking tour.
Of course, you can discover most Harry Potter places in Edinburgh by yourself but going on a tour is a great way to make sure you don’t miss out on anything!
Harry Potter walking tours in Edinburgh are fantastic and so worth it! The guide will bring you to all the main spots and tell you many anecdotes about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.
There are many Harry Potter tours in Edinburgh so no matter which day you are visiting, you will find one! I particularly recommend this one. It starts on Chambers street and last 2 hours. You can’t miss the guide, he will be waiting for you with his magic wand!
The guide will tell you everything about JK Rowling, her life, what inspired her to write Harry Potter, where she wrote the books, Edinburgh Awards and will bring you to the famous Harry Potter sites in Edinburgh such as Victoria Street, PotterrowâŠ
If you are a Harry Potter fan, it’s no brainer, you have to do it. You will learn so much! The guides are very knowledgeable and it’s really good fun!
There is also a quiz and always a bit of a competition between the different houses. Who is going to win this time? Gryffindors, Slytherins, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaws?
The walking tour is from far the best way to discover the world of Harry Potter in Edinburgh! For more information and prices, click here.
Harry Potter sites in Edinburgh
J.K Rowling came up with the idea of HP way before moving to Scotland. However, she included pieces of Edinburgh in her books! There are plenty of Harry Potter spots in Edinburgh and as the Potterhead that you are, you will love discovering them!
Victoria Street: Edinburgh’s Real Life version of Diagon Alley
There are several streets that were the inspiration for Diagon Alley. As a matter of fact, you will find 3 in Edinburgh and another couple in London and Porto.
Of course, JK Rowling didn’t just copy one street, she just took the best elements of this handful of streets and combined them with her imagination to create the true Diagon Alley.
However, Victoria Street is the closest real-life version of Diagon Alley.
Located in the old town of Edinburgh, this beautiful street is colourful and full of little and quirky shops. There is even a joke shop at the bottom! So if you want to check out the Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes joke shops in Edinburgh just go there!
PotterRow Port
Potterrow Port is a little tunnel located near Spoon café. It was used as a set in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (movie 5), the scene where dementors attack Harry and Dudley.
At the time, the director of the movie and his team didnât quite know how to film that scene. They couldnât find a suitable set.
They met with JK Rowling in Edinburgh and left the meeting with that unresolved issue. On the way back to the hotel, they walked near Pottermore row. The name probably caught their attention, for obvious reasons, and they went closer to have a look. As it turned out, it was the perfect place to film that scene!
After that, they recreated Pottermore row in the Warner Bros Studios in London and filmed the scene. As much as they would have wanted to film it in Edinburgh, the weather in Scotland is too unpredictable.
PS: This is not where the name Harry Potter comes from.
Greyfriars Kirkyard
As previously said, there are many things in Edinburgh that inspired JK Rowling. Greyfriars Kirkyard is one of them. When she moved to Edinburgh, she used to go there for a stroll with her daughter. Some people go to a park, JK Rowling goes to a graveyard! Why not after all!
She spent a lot of time there and looked at the graves, this is where she picked some of the names.
You can find the grave of Moodie, McGonagall and Thomas Riddell.
That’s why a lot of people refer to it as J.K. Rowling’s graveyard! Not sure she would be too happy about that though đ
Balmoral Hotel
In 2006, JK Rowling is writing the last book of Harry Potter. As you can imagine she is under a lot of pressure and decides to go away from her kids for a couple of days to be able to write the end of the book calmly.
She stays at the Balmoral hotel, right next to Waverley Station.
At that point, she is way too famous to go to cafes to write the books. People would keep bugging her, asking her how it ends⊠So she needs a calm place away from everyone.
The hotel turned out to be such a good piece of heaven, she ended up staying for 4 months to finish the book.
Side note about that, the room she was staying in costs ÂŁ1000 a night. I let you add that up!
She wrote for the 4 months of her stay and on January 11th, finally⊠Harry Potter was finished!
To celebrate, she called her publicist and graffitied the room! Up to that day, if you stay in this room, you can still see the inscription âHarry Potter was finished here on the 11th of January 2007.
George Heriot’s school
This one is a bit of an urban legend. Everybody in Edinburgh will tell you that this school (located by the Greyfriars Kirkyard) is the real-life version of Hogwarts.
Admittedly, we can see why anybody would think that. We know that J.K. Rowling spent a lot of time in the graveyard however, she confirmed on Twitter that it wasn’t the source of inspiration for Hogwarts.
Edinburgh Awards
The Edinburgh Award was set up in 2007 to recognise an individualâs outstanding achievements and contribution to the city of Edinburgh. JK Rowling was honoured by the City of Edinburgh and received the price in 2008, on Hermione Grangerâs 19th birthday.
Her handprints are now on the Edinburgh Award plaque on the ground in the city of chambers court (high street).
There are many more stories around Harry Potter in Edinburgh and I shall let you discover them once you get there but if you love the books, it is really the place you want to go to. It has nothing to do with Harry Potter in London. In London, you will find filming locations, the studios… everything that has to do with the movies. But if you love the books, Edinburgh is the place for you. That’s where everything started. Harry Potter is everywhere!
Harry Potter Cafés in Edinburgh where J.K. Rowling wrote parts of the books
J.K. Rowling wrote pieces of Harry Potter in a lot of places, including her small flat in Clapham Junction in London. In Edinburgh, her favourite places were cafes!
A lot of places have tried to get credit for that over the years but J.K Rowling confirmed in May 2020 on Twitter that she only wrote in 2 cafes in Edinburgh: Nicolson’s and the Elephant House.
The Elephant House
The Elephant House is a café located on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh Old Town.
Itâs particularly famous for being the birthplace of Harry Potter. When she moved to Scotland, JK Rowling spent a lot of time in cafes, especially the Elephant House, writing the first Harry Potter books.
So, if you want to put yourself in her shoes for a bit, just go to the Elephant House and grab a coffee or cake!
It is a very nice and reasonably priced café.
Another thing to note, you can graffiti the toilets with all your Harry Potter-related thoughts! Some of them include theories, ideas and opinions. One of the rare places where you really want to spend time in the toilet!
Because of the success of Harry Potter, the Elephant House has attracted a lot of visitors that just wanted to check out the place and the loo without buying anything. For that reason, there is a ÂŁ1 fee for the toilet. All the money from the loo is given to charity.
Nicolson’s cafe
Unlike the Elephant House, Nicolsonâs cafĂ© gives some mixed messages about its relationship with Harry Potter. On the front of the cafĂ© you will find a sign saying Harry Potter was written here. Inside, there is a sign saying otherwise.
That having been said, JK Rowling did confirm she wrote parts of Harry Potter in this café.
Harry Potter shops in Edinburgh
With so many people visiting Edinburgh for the Harry Potter related activities, it’s only normal that you will also find some shops where you can get official Harry Potter merchandise. Here are a few of them.
Museum Context
The Enchanted Galaxy
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