The Map of Hogwarts: Hogsmeade

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The Map of Hogwarts and Surrounding Areas:
Hogsmeade

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Analysis
History & general facts
Shops etc.
Layout
Access
Orientation & position

Conclusion
Criteria which must be met
Map of Hogsmeade & its environs

It may seem odd to put the basic position of the village last on the list: but some aspects of its position are much easier to explain if you already understand the layout of the shops in relation to one another.

I've described some things which don't strictly affect the map, such as the actual content of the shops where known, because I thought it would help people to visualise the area; plus it's interesting information which I don't currently have another slot for.

Some of the measurements in this section depend on knowing the average speed for a human walking, running etc.. For information on how these were obtained, see the Introduction page.

What we know or can deduce about the layout of the village:

History & general facts

We are told that Hogsmeade is the only purely wizarding settlement in Britain, which implies that there are others elsewhere in the world. We aren't told whether "Britain" in this context includes the whole of the British Isles, including Ireland, or whether it refers loosely to the United Kingdom, or whether it just means mainland Great Britain (the large island holding England, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall). If the latter there could potentially be purely wizard villages not just in Ireland but on the Isle of Mann or in the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, Scillies or Channel Isles. 'Do you know much about Hogsmeade?' asked Hermione keenly. 'I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain –' [cut]
'But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?' Hermione pressed on eagerly. 'In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion' [PoA ch. #05; p. 61]

Hengist of Woodcroft
Founder of Hogsmeade
Medieval, dates unknown
Driven away from his home by Muggle persecutors, Hengist is supposed to have settled in Scotland where he founded the village of Hogsmeade. Some say the Three Broomsticks Inn used to be his home. [Famous Wizards n° 11]

Hogsmeade has a fairly significant and venerable history, since one of the pubs was the headquarters for the 1612 Goblin Rebellion. The name suggests that the village pre-dates the founding of Hogwarts, which we know occurred some time between 942 and 992AD (see the section on the castle itself). The school must have been a significant feature of the area for wizards more or less since it was founded, so if the wizarding village had grown up as an adjunct to the school you would expect that the village too would be called Hogwarts, or something like Schola Magi. Instead, the paired names suggest that Hogsmeade existed before the school and that Hogwarts was built on the site of a pre-existing village, hamlet, farm or landscape feature of that name.

According to the Famous Wizards Chocolate Frog cards, however, Hogsmeade was founded by Hengist of Woodcroft, who is believed to have lived in what is now the Three Broomsticks pub and who was "Medieval, dates unknown". This could mean anything from the 5^th to the 15^th century. Because Rowling tends preferentially to use locations in the West Country, close to where she lived as a teenager, she probably had in mind the Woodcroft which is less than a mile from her family's home at Tutshill on the Welsh border, but this raises dating problems.

As a village, Woodcroft is very recent - according to Wiki it was founded some time between 1712 and 1815, at least a century after the Goblin Rebellion. If Hengist was born in the Middle Ages and came from this Woodcroft, he must have lived in a cottage on the patch of land which would later become the site of Woodcroft Village, but well before there was a village there. Woodcroft is on an area of land called Bishop Tithing and adjacent to Powder Hall Farm. There was a farm house at Powder Hall built some time prior to 1769, so there may well have been some farm-workers' cottages on the nearby common at Woodcroft. However, the earliest actual record we have of there being a cottage at Woodcroft is from 1712, and the name "Woodcroft" for that area of land doesn't seem to date back very far either.

Of course, that bit of common may have been called Woodcroft by the local people for centuries, without being recorded as such in official documents, and "... croft" suggests that there was a smallholding there pre-dating the name. But even so it requires a bit of special pleading to move the founding of Hogsmeade back much before about 1550, if the Woodcroft from which Hengist came was the one by Tutshill. I suppose you could argue that Hengist was born in the 15^th C and founded Hogsmeade when he was an old man - but if he was that recent it seems unlikely he would be "dates unknown". Daisy Dodderidge
Tavern Keeper
1467 - 1555
Daisy Dodderidge built the Leaky Cauldron inn to serve as a gateway between the non-wizarding world and Diagon Alley. Wizards and witches of her day loved her generosity and the welcoming atmosphere of her pub. [Famous Wizard Cards]

Also, there's the matter of Diagon Alley. The Muggle area surrounding Diagon Alley was open fields and market gardens until 1630 and didn't begin to become seriousely built-up until more than a century later. However, the Famous Wizards Chocolate Frog cards have the Leaky Cauldron being built as a gateway to Diagon Alley round about 1500. This suggests that the Diagon Alley/Knockturn Alley complex was originally part of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Lundenwic, a mile west of Roman Londinium, and was left behind, concealed in a pocket of wizardspace, when the Muggle population shifted back into the site of the Roman city, abandoning Lundenwic to green fields. Muggle Lundenwic had a population of 5-10,000, so Diagon Alley at that time was probably quite small and remained so until the area began to be built up again - otherwise large numbers of wizwitches coming and going would have attracted too much notice.

Prior to about 1750, then, Hogsmeade may well have been the main wizarding shopping centre in mainland Britain. If Hogsmeade really wasn't founded until the 17^th C, as would probably have to be the case if Hengist came from Tutshill in the Welsh borders, the growing wizard population would have been stuck buying their supplies from the pre-Leaky Cauldron phase of Diagon Alley - that is, from a wizardspace enclave whose entrance point was simultaneously in the middle of a field and overlooked by a neighbouring Muggle city. Even if they came and went through the local church (a traditionally ecumenical and friendly establishment), very large numbers of people going in and coming out a couple of hours later carrying parcels would surely attract attention.

However, although Rowling almost certainly had the Woodcroft near Tutshill in mind, the card doesn't actually say so, so that identification isn't canon if it conflicts with other evidence. In the absence of a firm statement linking Hengist to Gloucestershire, we can probably assume that he came from the Woodcroft at Marholm near Peterborough. That Woodcroft has been so-called since the 12^th C when a family named Woodcroft owned a manor there, and it has a fine 13^th C castle, so then we can have Hengist born in the 12^th C and Hogsmeade being founded only about thirty years later.

That still leaves the wizarding village at Hogsmeade over a century younger than the school, at least, which raises problems as to why the village wasn't called after the school. Possibly Hogsmeade was originally the name of a farm in that area - the Three Broomsticks might have been the original farmhouse.

Hogsmeade looked like a Christmas card; the little thatched cottages and shops were all covered in a layer of crisp snow; there were holly wreaths on the doors and strings of enchanted candles hanging in the trees. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

[cut] they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village.
Harry had never been in this direction before. The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking towards the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. [GoF ch. #27; p. 451]

The overall appearance of Hogsmeade is very "quaint" and rural and slightly English, with little thatched cottages and shops (it's unclear whether the shops are also little and thatched, but it's clear the comment is meant to convey an overall impression of the village), even though thatch is very rare in Scotland. There are trees growing within the village and visible from the street - perhaps in the form of a small village green - and at Christmas these trees are decorated with candles, and holly wreaths are hung on the doors. The residential properties generally have gardens, which get bigger as you go towards the edge of the village. The fact that Harry knows how big the gardens are in the village confirms that some of the residential properties are visible from the areas where the students go. The High Street was full of students ambling up and down, peering into the shop windows and messing about together on the pavements. [OotP ch. #25; p. 492]

He and Dumbledore were shivering and dripping in the middle of the dark High Street in Hogsmeade. [cut] all was still, the darkness complete but for a few streetlamps and lit upper windows. [HBP ch. #27; p. 541]

[cut] Harry, Ron and Hermione backed, as quickly as possible, down the nearest side street and the Death Eaters missed them by inches. They waited in the darkness [cut]
[cut] 'Potter, in here, quick!'
[cut] he saw [cut] the grubby, sawdust-strewn bar of the Hog's Head. [DH ch. #28; p. 448/449]

It has pavements (sidewalks, to our American cousins), which implies the occasional presence of vehicular traffic, even though we aren't shown any. We are not told how the actual roads in the village are surfaced - whether they are cobbled, bare earth, tarmac or what. There are at least some streetlamps, which will probably be ornate Victorian cast-iron jobs rather than modern. In DH the side-road to the Hog's Head is not lit, but it's not clear whether there are no streetlamps there, or whether the Death Eaters have turned off all streetlamps in the village. [cut] by the time they reached the High Street night was falling in earnest. Lights twinkled from windows over shops [HBP ch. #25; p. 517]

For one horrible moment Harry's imagination showed him more Inferi creeping towards him around the sides of shops, but he blinked and saw that nothing was stirring; all was still, the darkness complete but for a few streetlamps and lit upper windows. [HBP ch. #27; p. 541]

The shops are laid out in such a way that there are often narrow passages or alleys between them (otherwise Harry wouldn't be able to imagine Inferi creeping round the sides of the shops). Many, perhaps most or all of the shops and businesses have accommodation over them. The main road is called the High Street, with capitalization, so that must be its actual name.

       'I'm stationed in Hogsmeade now, to give the school extra protection,' said Tonks.
       'Is it just you who's stationed up here, or –?'
       'No, Proudfoot, Savage and Dawlish are here too.' [HBP ch. #08; p. 151]

'I was staying at the Hog's Head, which I do not advice, incidentally – bed bugs, dear boy – but funds were low. Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn.' [HBP ch. #25; p. 508]

She had difficulty in finding a bed in Hogsmeade, Seamus told Harry and Ron, for wizards and witches were pouring into the village, preparing to pay their last respects to Dumbledore. [HBP ch. #30; p. 590]

There seems to be plenty of accommodation available to let, since floods of people arrive for Dumbledore's funeral and are put up, albeit with some difficulty. There may be an actual hotel somewhere, but it's more likely that there are several guesthouses, and we know that the Hog's Head lets rooms, or certainly used to circa 1980. We're not told whether the Three Broomsticks also takes guests: it's described as "tiny" and it appears that the landlady lives above the shop, so it may not have room for guests, but then again there might be an annexe at the back.

'We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the Three Broomsticks –' [PoA ch. #08; p. 119]

'Tell you what,' said Ron, his teeth chattering, 'shall we go for a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?' [cut]
[cut] A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks up at the bar. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

Harry remembered Hagrid mentioning this pub in his first year: 'Yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hogs Head,' he had said, explaining how he had won a dragon's egg from a hooded stranger there. At the time Harry had wondered why Hagrid had not found it odd that the stranger kept his face hidden throughout their encounter; now he saw that keeping your face hidden was something of a fashion in the Hog's Head. There was a man at the bar whose whole head was wrapped in dirty grey bandages, though he was still managing to gulp endless glasses of some smoking, fiery substance through a slit over his mouth; two figures shrouded in hoods sat at a table in one of the windows; Harry might have thought them Dementors if they had not been talking in strong Yorkshire accents, and in a shadowy corner beside the fireplace sat a witch with a thick, black veil that fell to her toes. [OotP ch. #16; p. 300]

The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family – safe, reliable and with Built-in Anti-Burgler Buzzer ... Mrs Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!... Gladrags Wizardwear – London, Paris, Hogsmeade ... [GoF ch. #08; p. 88]

We are never told what the population of Hogsmeade is. However, there appear to be only two pubs, the Hog's Head and the Three Broomsticks - at least, no others are ever mentioned. Where I live, in south-central Scotland, there are two adjacent villages, West Calder and Polbeth, which between them have about ten thousand residents and at least seven pubs, or around one pub per fourteen hundred people. [Note added May 2015 - as I write this I am contemplating moving to Slamannan, which has a population of just under fourteen-hundred - and one pub, although at some point in the past it had two.] One pub per fourteen-hundred-head of population gives us a reasonable figure to play with for a village in Scotland, which would make the population of Hogsmeade something around two thousand eight hundred.

However, West Calder and Polbeth are little local, workaday towns with no appreciable tourist trade. Hogsmeade, on the other hand, has a large boarding school on its outskirts, plenty of tourist accommodation and a lot of through traffic, to judge from some of the people we see in the pubs. We know it's enough of a cosmopolitan place to be advertised at the Quidditch World Cup. If those two pubs are considered sufficient to serve the needs of the residents and all the visitors (which presumably they are, or somebody would have opened another one), the permanent population of Hogsmeade is probably only about two thousand - although at any given time there may be dozens, even hundreds of visitors staying there.

Statistics for Scotland suggest that two thousand people would occupy something between eight and nine hundred households. On the assumption that wizards are socially somewhat more "old-fashioned" than Muggles, and therefore more likely to pair up young and to have a slightly higher average number of persons per household, I'm going to assume there are around eight hundred residences in the village. That won't equate to eight hundred houses, because some of those residences will be in houses split into flats (two or more to a house), and some will be rooms above shops.

Nine business premises are mentioned, but those are only the ones Harry finds interesting. Although the village is small by Muggle standards, for wizards it's their main population-centre, at least outside London, and a shopping-centre worthy of being advertised in the same breath as London and Paris: it's not likely that residents have to Apparate to Diagon Alley or to a Muggle town if they want a haircut or a halibut. So there must be food and equipment shops, services such as hairdressers and photographers, and probably offices as well. If we say that there are fifty business premises, each with a flat above it, and say a hundred houses which are split into two or three flats, that accounts for around three hundred of those eight hundred residences, and then there would be five hundred houses which are not split. That gives us around six hundred and fifty buildings, as a very rough approximation.

How does Hogsmeade actually fund itself? It seems to have too many and too large specialist shops for them to make a living mainly out of sales to the population of a village so small it only has two pubs, so we must assume that tourists, day-trippers and mail-order make up a substantial part of their trade. How much trade do they get from the school? Third-years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade at certain weekends. [PoA ch. #01; p. 16]

On the Saturday morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Harry bid goodbye to Ron and Hermione [PoA ch. #10; p. 142]

'Hogsmeade, next weekend!' said Ron, craning over the heads to read the new notice. [cut] On Saturday morning, Harry packed his Invisibility Cloak in his bag, slipped the Marauder's Map into his pocket [PoA ch. #14; p. 203]

On the Saturday before the first task, all students in the third year and above were permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade. [GoF ch. #19; p. 279]

He, Ron and Hermione left the castle together on Saturday, and set off through the cold, wet grounds towards the gates. [GoF ch. #24; p. 385]

Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish & Banges) at two o’clock on Saturday afternoon. [GoF ch. #27; p. 443]

He kept reliving Saturday’s meeting in his mind: all those people, coming to him to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts ... [OotP ch. #17; p. 312]

Actual visits by the students to Hogsmeade appear to be infrequent. McGonagall's letter to the Dursleys says the visits will be on "certain weekends" but we only seem to see them go in on a Saturday, and it may be that the shops are shut on Sundays - which suggests either that the villagers are very religious Christians or that the shops are doing well enough not to need to stay open in the hopes of extra student trade. I get the impression there's usually only one Hogsmeade visit per term, but this is a bit unclear as the visits we see are in different months each year.

In third year we see the students visiting Hogsmeade in October, December, February (or perhaps early March - after the big Gryffindor/Ravenclaw match in February and before Easter, at any rate) and June; in fourth year, November, January and March. In fifth year, October and February (Valentine's Day): we know there were none in between October and February because the February one is referred to as the second Hogsmeade trip of the year, and it's definitely the schoool year which is meant, not the calendar year, because on the day after Harry and co. return from their Christmas holidays Cho remarks that there is due to be "another Hogsmeade trip next month", with no mention of any trip this month. In sixth year, one in October and one on the first of March (Ron's birthday), which is cancelled. There may have been others we weren't told about because nothing interesting happened to the Trio.

'First Hogsmeade weekend,' said Ron, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old notice board. 'End of October. Hallowe'en.' [PoA ch. #08 ; p. 109]

To everyone’s delight except Harry’s, there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term.
'We can do all our Christmas shopping there!' said Hermione. [PoA ch. #10; p. 142]

January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, [PoA ch. #12; p. 181]

Harry, completely hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, emerged into the sunlight outside Honeydukes [PoA ch. #14; p. 205]

The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. [PoA ch. #15; p. 221]

The sweltering heat and the end of the exams meant that everyone was taking full advantage of another Hogsmeade visit. [PoA ch. #22; p. 307]

'The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth' [GoF ch. #17; p. 246]

On the Saturday before the first task, all students in the third year and above were permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade. [GoF ch. #19; p. 279]

There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January. [GoF ch. #24; p. 385]

[cut] time was slipping away as though somebody had bewitched the clocks to go extra fast. There was a week to go before February the twenty-fourth [cut]
       With two days left, Harry started to go off food again. The only good thing about breakfast on Monday was the return of the brown owl he had sent to Sirius. He pulled off the parchment, unrolled it, and saw the shortest letter Sirius had ever written to him.
       Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.[cut]
       'Weekend after next,' whispered Hermione, [GoF ch. #26; p. 419]

[cut] a poster giving the date of the first Hogsmeade weekend, which was to be in October. [OotP ch. #12; p. 200/201]

[cut] 'you know the first weekend in October’s a Hogsmeade weekend?' [OotP ch. #16; p. 297]

The six of them struggled up the slippery drive towards the castle, dragging their trunks. [cut]
Harry spent most of the next day dreading the evening. [cut]
[cut] 'Erm ... there's another Hogsmeade trip next month, did you see the notice? [cut] it’s on Valentine’s Day ...' [OotP ch. #24; p. 466/467]

[cut] February had arrived, bringing with it wetter and warmer weather and the prospect of the second Hogsmeade visit of the year. [OotP ch. #25; p. 490]

Halfway through October came their first trip of the term to Hogsmeade. [HBP ch. #12; p. 223]

[cut] a sign went up on all common-room noticeboards that the next trip into Hogsmeade had been cancelled. Ron was furious.
'It was on my birthday!' he said. [HBP ch. #18; p. 364]

January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. [PoA ch. #12; p. 181]

'Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat.' [PoA ch. #13; p. 188]

The Twins also tell third-year Ron to go down to the village to replace his supposedly slain rat, speaking as if he would be allowed to make a special trip for such a practical purpose. This occurs in early February, prior to the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw match, not long before the official Hogsmeade visit, so they may just be referring to that. Or they may just have intended him to visit illegally, especially as they know Harry knows about the tunnel to Honeydukes.

Are students who are of age allowed to visit when they like? Hermione doesn't seem to, even though she turns seventeen early in sixth year, but perhaps it's frowned on (putting the younger sixth years at a disadvantage) and as a prefect she doesn't do it. Or maybe security has been stepped up in recent years.

The owls sat hooting softly down at him, at least three hundred of them; from Great Greys right down to tiny little Scops owls ('Local Deliveries Only') which were so small they could have sat in the palm of Harry's hand. [PoA ch. #14; p. 205]

Even if the students don't actually physically visit Hogsmeade very often, they may provide susbstantial mail-order trade by owl. We know that owls used for short- and long-distance deliveries are different (or at least, that there are small owls reserved for local deliveries), so it's probably cheaper to order from Hogsmeade than from Diagon Alley.

'I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself.' [cut]
[cut] 'Don't worry about me, I'm pretending to be a loveable stray.' [GoF ch. #27; p. 452]

Hogsmeade has rats: we know this because Sirius lives mainly on rats when he is hiding out in a cave on the mountain near Hogsmeade, pretending to be a loveable stray. You don't get many rats in open, wild land - not in numbers which would make them seem a better food source to a hungry dog than rabbits or partridges - so this suggests either that the shops and/or houses in Hogsmeade are a bit careless with leaving rubbish lying around, or that there are farms or crofts with granaries, or with stores of food for cattle or sheep, in the vicinity of the village - or perhaps stills or breweries with nice enticing piles of malted grain. Indeed it is very likely that there is a distillery in or near the village: wizards drink Firewhisky, not Firewhiskey, which tells us that it is distilled in Scotland not Ireland, and we don't know of any other wizarding communities in Scotland.

[A croft btw is a small farm or large smallholding, big enough to make a substantial difference to the crofter's food supply but not usually big enough to make them entirely self-supporting: crofters normally do a second part-time job to make up the difference.]

One wonders why Sirius chose to live on rats rather than on rabbits, which would probably be a lot easier to catch. Maybe he prefers the taste - but Sirius being Sirius, it seems all too possible that he chose to hunt rats in order to take his spite against Peter out on innocent animals. On the other hand a sole diet of rabbits, which produce very lean meat, can result in "rabbit starvation", a kind of malnutrition brought on by a mostly-protein diet which is deficient in fat, and the rats might have had more fat on them and so made for a more balanced diet.

There must be a water-source to supply the village and keep the farmland from drying out during August. This could be springs, or burns running off from the mountains or down from the loch at Hogwarts. Although we are not told so, it's quite possible that some of the streets include bridges over a water-course. The putative distillery would be along this watercourse somewhere.        'Underwater ...' Harry said slowly. 'Myrtle ... what lives in the lake, apart from the giant squid?'
       'Oh, all sorts,' she said. 'I sometimes go down there ... sometimes don't have any choice, if someone flushes my toilet when I'm not expecting it ...'
       Trying not to think about Moaning Myrtle zooming down a pipe to the lake with the contents of a toilet, Harry said, 'Well, does anything in there have human voices? Hang on –' [GoF ch. #25; p. 403]

You have to wonder what the village does with its raw sewage - assuming it doesn't just dump it into the loch the way the school does. Possibly it is magically-treated and used to fertilise the fields.

Strasbourg International Film Festival

Decoration Warehouse

What would Hogsmeade actually look like? Certainly not like the version seen in the films. The typical appearance of Hogsmeade is described as "little thatched cottages and shops", not massive, towering, dark multi-storey buildings with tiled roofs. The distinctive architectural style of the WB version of Hogsmeade, with its very high, steeply-pitched and slightly concave roofs, belongs to Alsace-Lorraine and the Black Forest area of Germany, not to Britain.

In fact, the film version of Hogsmeade closely resembles a rather twee German Advent Calendar, and since German Christmas imagery has become such a cultural norm in recent years, it may be that Warners were misled by the description of Hogsmeade under snow looking "like a Christmas card". But that thought is supposed to be being had by Harry in the mid 1990s before German Christmas scenes became ubiquitous, and in reality was had by JK Rowling circa 1998, so the reference is to a traditional British Christmas snow-scene, e.g. mail-coaches passing stone or white-walled inns in deep snow. The half-timbering shown on the buildings in film-Hogsmeade is something you do sometimes get in British Christmas-card scenes, but British buildings are a very different overall shape, and certainly don't have those high, pointed, concave roofs. I don't think it's actually possible to thatch a roof that shape - it would slide off. [cut] the three of them left Honeydukes for the blizzard outside. [cut]
'Tell you what,' said Ron, his teeth chattering, 'shall we go for a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?'
[cut] they crossed the road, and in a few minutes were entering the tiny inn. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

The most typical Highland village is a skein of small white-painted or grey-stone houses strung along one side of a road, but Hogsmeade is clearly more complex than that. It's a sizeable village, nearly a town, with a proper High Street with houses and shops on both sides of it (Honeydukes is definitely on the opposite side of the road from the Three Broomsticks), and at least a couple of side-turnings. It also includes at least some thatched buildings.

Thatch - possibly of reeds or heather rather than straw - does occur in Scotland, including the Highlands, but it's very rare. However, it used to be a lot commoner, at least on traditional "black houses" and workers' cottages, and Hogsmeade may have retained this old-fashioned style: you can see a reconstructed thatched Highland village of circa 1700 at the Highland Folk Museum. Charles Evans has pointed out that large parts of the village may have been destroyed in the 1812 Goblin Rebellion, and if so there would be many new buildings dating from about 1620-1700.

About My Area

Below you can see examples of Highland villages which look similar to the way Hogsmeade is described: that is, with smallish two-storey buildings in a style which conceivably could be thatched, even if these real-life examples aren't, arranged on both sides of a proper high-street, and with enough variation in shape and style to allow for alleys between them, rather than the buildings all being one solid strip. Bear in mind also that Rowling's own visualisation of Hogsmeade may have been influenced by St Mary Street, an old-fashioned street of shops in Chepstow where she lived as a teenager.

Colin SmithGeograph

Jonathan BillingerGeograph

Richard WebbGeograph

Next we have a selection of original or restored thatched buildings from the Highlands - although most are from Perthshire rather than the West Highlands. Two-storey thatched buildings are even rarer in Scotland than single-storey ones, but there are a few in existence: you can imagine that Hogsmeade would look somewhat like Dunkeld but with many of the buildings thatched.

Anne BurgessGeograph

Jason HemmingsGeograph

Anne BrennanGeograph

Calum McRobertsGeograph

Russell WillsGeograph

Nigel BrownGeograph

Wizards being as flamboyant as they are, however, Hogsmeade is probably painted in bright colours like Tobermory, rather than soberly white like most Highland villages. Also, we know that the village was founded in the Middle Ages, and presumably the wizarding population - and the population of Hogsmeade - has grown over the centuries along with the wider population of Britain. And unlike many Muggle areas in the Highlands, Hogsmeade probably wasn't affected by the Clearances. That means that the village will have grown over the centuries, and individual houses may be of any period, from black houses all the way to glass-walled Post-Modern. [cut] the wizards grew further and further apart from their non-magical brethren, culminating with the institution of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689, when wizardkind voluntarily went underground. [BtB ch. #01; p. 13/14]

However, the fact that the village is described as looking "like a Christmas card" carries slight implications about its overall period: it suggests that the buildings on the whole are probably sixteenth to eighteenth century in style, as buildings of this vintage are commoner in British Christmas-card snow-scenes than obviously modern or Victorian structures. That would tie in with the beginning of significant witch-hunts in Britain in the mid sixteenth century, increasing during the seventeenth century and culminating in the great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661/62; the fact that Muggle Britain was embroiled in Civil War during much of the seventeenth century; and the enactment of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689. All of these events must have seen many witches and wizards migrating away from Muggle towns - especially if their work involved doing something hard to conceal, such as breeding Hippogriffs. You would expect there to have been an expansion of building and settlement in Hogsmeade during those 250 years, and for the appearance of the village to reflect that.

As well as brighter colours and greater variation in style than in most Highland villages, there are probably fancy shop signs hanging above the pavements, twiddly gargoyles over the doors and decorative straw animals woven into the thatch (if it's not too windy for them to survive). The lamposts are likely to be elaborate Victorian cast-iron: perhaps a simple upright lantern like the one in the Narnia books; perhaps as spectacular and bizarre as this example from Brechin.

It is likely that there will also be a kirk (Scottish church) somewhere around the village, or a village hall doubling as an ecumenical kirk. Highland kirks tend to be very small and plain, but since Hogsmeade is fairly large as Highland villages go, and seems to have some English architectural influences, it will probably have something a little more elaborate.

The two kirks at Balquhidder provide a possible model. The more recent 19^th C kirk is more elaborate than the bog-standard Highland chapel but still fairly traditional in style, apart from the shape of the ornamental structure above the door. Next to it, the ruins of the 17^th C kirk show a more ancient, lantern-like decorative finial. You can imagine the kirk at Hogsmeade as something like the modern kirk at Balquhidder but with this traditional, lantern-like decoration.

Return to contents-list

Shops etc.

The following shops and sites of interest have been mentioned as being located in Hogsmeade:

Dervish & Banges

Wizarding equipment

Gladrags Wizardwear

Clothes

Honeydukes

Sweetshop

Zonko's

Joke shop

Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop

A sort of Mediaeval-style stationers, selling quills and probably also parchment, ink etc.

Post Office

Owl post

Madam Puddifoot's

Tea shop (or shoppe)

The Three Broomsticks

Public house

The Hog's Head

Public house

The Shrieking Shack

Famously haunted private house

'Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat.' [PoA ch. #13; p. 188]

Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages that were now trundling towards them up the drive [GoF ch. #37; p. 629]

We also know that there is a shop in Hogsmeade which sells pet rats (and presumably other wizarding familiars); we don't know whether this is Dervish & Banges, or whether there is a specific pet-shop which hasn't been named. In addition there are obviously a large number of guesthouses/hotels, and probably some sort of garage where the Thestral-drawn carriages are kept (possibly shrunk for ease of storage). The carriages don't appear to be kept anywhere on the school grounds, since they come up the driveway, empty, to collect passengers and take them to the train at the end of term.

'They make a fuss about Hogsmeade, but I assure you, Harry, it's not all it's cracked up to be,' he said seriously. 'All right, the sweetshop's rather good, but Zonko's Joke Shop's frankly dangerous, and yes, the Shrieking Shack's always worth a visit, but really, Harry, apart from that, you're not missing anything.' [PoA ch. #08; p. 114]

There must also be either a sizeable general supermarket or a whole raft of smaller shops which provide everyday goods and services - food, hardware, soap, toilet paper, haircuts - to the residents of Hogsmeade, almost certainly a village hall and perhaps also a primary school, as well as a church or other religious building(s). You would also certainly expect a bookshop and/or a public library, and the wizarding equivalent of a pharmacy, even if patients with more serious problems Apparate to St Mungo's or visit the hospital wing at the school. Percy's opinion that most of the shops are quite mundane is probably justified.

'We could get [Harry's Sneakoscope] checked in Hogsmeade,' said Ron, sitting back down. 'They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff, Fred and George told me.' [PoA ch. #05; p. 61]

'What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?'
By the sound of it – everywhere. Dervish and Banges, the wizarding equipment shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot Butterbeer and many places besides.
'The post office, Harry!' [PoA ch. #08; p. 119]

Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish & Banges) [GoF ch. #27; p. 443]

Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village. [GoF ch. #27; p. 451]

They wandered towards Dervish and Banges. A large poster had been stuck up in the window [OotP ch. #25; p. 492]

Of the named shops, Dervish & Banges is merely mentioned, whereas most of the other premises and their wares are described in some detail. We do know that it sells magical instruments, and its staff might be willing to check a Pocket Sneakoscope to see if it's working all right. And possibly that it sells rats. Oh and that it has a window large enough to display a large "Wanted" poster.

Gladrags Wizardwear – London, Paris, Hogsmeade ... [GoF ch. #08; p. 88]

They went into Gladrags Wizardwear to buy a present for Dobby, where they had fun selecting the most lurid socks they could find, including a pair patterned with flashing gold and silver stars, and another that screamed loudly when they became too smelly. [GoF ch. #27; p. 451]

Gladrags Wizardwear is also hardly mentioned, but we do know that it's part of a chain with branches in London and Paris, and we do at least get a picture of the lurid enchanted socks which it sells. These include "a pair patterned with flashing gold and silver stars, and another that screamed loudly when they became too smelly", both of a size to suit a house-elf.

'I just want to get inside Honeydukes.' [cut]
'It's this sweetshop,' said Ron, a dreamy look coming over his face, 'where they've got everything ... Pepper Imps – they make you smoke at the mouth – and great fat Chocoballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next –' [cut]
'– and massive sherbert balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them' [PoA ch. #05; p. 61]

'Thanks,' said Harry, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. [cut]
'Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look –' [PoA ch. #08; p. 118/119]

[cut] Very slowly, he pushed the trapdoor open and peered over the edge.
       He was in a cellar, which was full of wooden crates and boxes. Harry climbed out of the trapdoor and replaced it – it blended so perfectly with the dusty floor that it was impossible to tell it was there. Harry crept slowly towards the wooden staircase that led upstairs. Now he could definitely hear voices, not to mention the tinkle of a bell and the opening and shutting of a door.
       'And get another box of Jelly Slugs, dear, they've nearly cleaned us out –' said a woman's voice.
       A pair of feet was coming down the staircase. Harry leapt behind an enormous crate and waited for the footsteps to pass. He heard the man shifting boxes against the wall opposite. He might not get another chance –
       Quickly and silently, Harry dodged out from his hiding place and climbed the stairs; [cut] Harry reached the door at the top of the stairs, slipped through it, and found himself behind the counter of Honeydukes – he ducked, crept sideways and then straightened up.
       Honeydukes was so crowded with Hogwarts students that no one looked twice at Harry. [cut]
       There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were 'Special Effects' sweets: Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!'), fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons. Harry squeezed himself through a crowd of sixth-years and saw a sign hanging in the furthest corner of the shop ('Unusual Tastes'). Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavoured lollipops. [cut]
       'Urgh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect,' Hermione was saying.
       'How about these?' said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Cluster under Hermione's nose. [PoA ch. #10; p. 146/147]

[cut] 'the Honeydukes owners would hear a break-in, wouldn't they? They live over the shop!' [PoA ch. #10; p. 148]

'He'd have a job spotting Harry in this,' said Ron, nodding through the mullioned windows at the thick, swirling snow. [PoA ch. #10; p. 148]

'Seen the Fizzing Whizzbees, Harry?' said Ron, grabbing him and leading him over to their barrel. 'And the Jelly Slugs? And the Acid Pops? Fred gave me one of those when I was seven – it burnt a hole right through my tongue. I remember Mum walloping him with her broomstick.' Ron stared broodingly into the Acid Pop box. 'Reckon Fred'd take a bit of Cockroach Cluster if I told him they were peanuts?' [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

[cut] Ron, who was eating a Peppermint Toad [PoA ch. #11; p. 158]

Fred and George Weasley disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with [cut] several bags full of Honeydukes sweets. [cut]
[cut] 'If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies, he used to really like them –' [PoA ch. #13; p. 195/196]

Back into Honeydukes, back down the cellar steps, across the stone floor, through the trapdoor [PoA ch. #14; p. 207]

[cut] as they came out of Honeydukes Sweetshop later, eating large cream-filled chocolates. [GoF ch. #19; p. 279]

The shop which is described in most detail is Honeydukes, the sweetshop. Judging from the number of customers who cram into it, it must be pretty large. It has mullioned windows (that is, divided by a narrow vertical bar) and a tinkly bell on the door. The owners live over the shop. There is a counter, which one can walk out from behind without obstruction. There is one wall covered with shelves and barrels of comparatively ordinary sweets, although some of them do have minor magical side-effects, and another wall of "Special Effects" sweets most of which do spectacular magical things. In the corner furthest from the counter is a sign saying "Unusual Tastes", underneath which are trays and jars of sweets probably intended for non-humans.

Behind the counter is access of some kind - probably a trapdoor - to a wooden stair which leads down to a stone-floored cellar containing wooden crates and boxes, some of them enormous. At least one of the boxes contains Jelly Slugs. In the floor of this cellar there is another trapdoor, leading to a tunnel, but it blends invisibly into the dusty floor.

Some sweets sold by Honeydukes:

Comparatively ordinary sweets

Chocoballs

large balls of chocolate full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream

Jelly Slugs

not described, but evidently popular

Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans

beans with fillings in a wide variety of flavours, some of them not conventionally edible, such as e.g. grass or earwax

Acid Pops

these really are acidic enough to burn a hole right through a child's tongue

Fizzing Whizzbees

massive sherbert balls which make you levitate a few inches as you suck them (you would have thought that counted as a Special Effect - but they seem to be classed with the toffees rather than the Pepper Imps)

Fudge

in a variety of flavours, some probably experimental

Coconut ice

in shimmering pink squares

Nougat

in creamy chunks

Toffee

in fat, honey-coloured pieces

Chocolate

in hundreds of varieties

Large, cream-filled chocolates

which may or may not be the same thing as Chocoballs.

Fudge Flies

of which no details are given except that Scabbers liked them, so they probably aren't too wierd.

"Special Effects" sweets

Pepper Imps

tiny, black and make you breathe fire

Drooble's Best Blowing Gum

which produces numerous bluebell-coloured bubbles which last for days

Toothflossing Stringmints

which are splintery, and presumably do floss your teeth

Ice Mice

which make your teeth chatter and squeak

Peppermint Toads

toad-shaped peppermint-creams which hop in your stomach

Sugar Quills

made of fragile spun sugar, but realistic enough to fool a teacher

Exploding bonbons

which presumably do just that

"Unusual Tastes" sweets

Blood-flavoured lollipops

probably intended for vampires

Cockroach Cluster

looks rather like peanuts

'Chocolate Cauldrons, they've got Firewhisky in them.' [HBP ch. #15; p. 289]

What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands [cut]
[cut] 'Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - Famous Witches and Wizards.' [PS ch. #06; p. 76/77]

Other wizarding sweets which we know exist, although they haven't been mentioned in relation to Honeydukes, include Chocolate Cauldrons, which are a sort of liqueur chocolate full of Firewhisky, Liquorice Wands and the ubiquitous Chocolate Frogs with their Famous Witches and Wizards cards. Note that the idea that Chocolate Frogs are animate is purely derived from the films; there is nothing in the books to suggest that they move. It's Peppermint Toads that hop - and that only in your stomach.

Zonko's Joke Shop is also described in some detail, or at least its wares are. Jokes and tricks on sale in Zonko's include: Stink Pellets; Belch Powder; Whizzing Worms; Dungbombs; Hiccup Sweets; Frog Spawn Soap and Nose-Biting Teacups. Percy thinks that some of Zonko's wares are outright dangerous, and he's probably right. Zonko's was boarded up by mid-October 1996.

'I need to visit Zonko's, I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets.' [PoA ch. #08; p. 109]

'All right, the sweetshop's rather good, but Zonko's Joke Shop's frankly dangerous' [PoA ch. #08; p. 114]

[cut] 'why aren't you in Hogsmeade buying Stink Pellets and Belch Powder and Whizzing Worms like the rest of your nasty little friends?' [PoA ch. #08; p. 115]

Then they visited Zonko's, which was so packed with students Harry had to exercise great care not to tread on anyone and cause a panic. There were jokes and tricks to fulfil even Fred's and George's wildest dreams; Harry gave Ron whispered orders and passed him some gold from under the Cloak. They left Zonko's with their money bags considerably lighter than they had been on entering, but their pockets bulging with Dungbombs, Hiccup Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap and a Nose-Biting Teacup apiece. [PoA ch. #14; p. 205]

[cut] when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. [HBP ch. #12; p. 228]

They had turned into the High Street [from the lane where the Hog's Head is] and she paused outside Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, where there was a handsome display of pheasant feather quills in the window. 'Hmm ... I could do with a new quill.' [OotP ch. #16; p. 310]

       'But,' said Ron, following Hermione along a row of quills in copper pots, 'I thought Ginny fancied Harry!' [cut]
       'Ginny used to fancy Harry, but she gave up on him months ago. Not that she doesn't like you, of course,' she added kindly to Harry while she examined a long black and gold quill. [cut]
       She went up to the counter and handed over fifteen Sickles and two Knuts, with Ron still breathing down her neck. [OotP ch. #16; p. 311]

Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop sells a variety of useful and fancy quills. There are pheasant feather quills in the window display, and inside, quills are set out in copper pots. Hermione purchases a long black and gold quill - probably one of the pheasant feathers - which costs her fifteen Sickles and two Knuts. This is probably about £4.50, or around $7, which is reasonable. When I had a shop that sold that sort of thing, I used to charge £2.50 for goose-feather quills and £5 for swan - although that was about ten years later than Hermione's visit to Scrivenshaft's.

'The gold ones are Galleons,' he explained. 'Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle' [PS ch. #05; p. 58]

[We know there are twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle and seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them state their price as being "£2.50 (14 Sickles 3 Knuts)", which would make a Galleon £3, but Rowling said on her website that it's £5. Presumably that means that a Galleon is worth £3 on the exchange rate, but £5 in terms of its purchasing power.]

We are not told whether Scrivenshaft's also sells ink, ink-pots and parchment, but it seems reasonable to expect that it does. If it doesn't, there must be another shop that does.

'The post office, Harry! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all colour-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!' [PoA ch. #08; p. 119]

They went to the Post Office; Ron pretended to be checking the price of an owl to Bill in Egypt so that Harry could have a good look around. The owls sat hooting softly down at him, at least three hundred of them; from Great Greys right down to tiny little Scops owls ('Local Deliveries Only') which were so small they could have sat in the palm of Harry's hand. [PoA ch. #14; p. 205]

They walked down the main street past [cut] the post office, from which owls issued at regular intervals [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

The Post Office is really a commerical owlery. Accounts vary as to whether there are two hundred or three-hundred-plus owls; possibly when Hermione and Ron first saw it a lot of the owls were out carrying deliveries. The owls are perched on shelves, evidently high up since they hoot down at Harry, and are colour-coded according to delivery-speed. They range in size from Great Greys down to tiny Scops owls marked "Local Deliveries Only": some of the larger species can deliver to foreign countries. From the street, it is possible to see owls flying out from the building.

Madam Puddifoot's is a tea shoppe of surpassing hideousness, small, cramped, steamy and covered in frills and bows. It is packed with small, circular tables, very close together and extending right to the steamy windows. The street door opens inwards, and has a tinkly, tuneful bell on it. For Valentine's Day, there are real, moving golden cherubs hovering over the tables, throwing pink confetti.

'Oh, there's a really nice place just up here; haven't you ever been to Madam Puddifoot's?' she said brightly, leading him up a side road and into a small teashop that Harry had never noticed before. It was a cramped, steamy little place where everything seemed to have been decorated with frills or bows. Harry was reminded unpleasantly of Umbridge's office. [OotP ch. #25; p. 493]

'Look, she's decorated it for Valentine's Day!' said Cho, indicating a number of golden cherubs that were hovering over each of the small, circular tables, occasionally throwing pink confetti over the occupants. [cut]
They sat down at the last remaining table, which was over by the steamy window. Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, was sitting about a foot and a half away with a pretty blonde girl. [cut] looking around the teashop, he saw that it was full of nothing but couples, all of them holding hands. [OotP ch. #25; p. 493/494]

[cut] hiccoughing slightly she dashed to the door, wrenched it open and hurried off into the pouring rain.
'Cho!' Harry called after her, but the door had already swung shut behind her with a tuneful tinkle. [OotP ch. #25; p. 496]

'Do you know much about Hogsmeade?' asked Hermione keenly. 'I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain –' [cut]
'But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?' Hermione pressed on eagerly. 'In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion' [PoA ch. #05; p. 61]

The pub called the Three Broomsticks is probably the oldest building in the village. It dates right back at least to the founding of the village (which could be as early as the 12^th C) and probably before that. It is rumoured to have been the home of Hengist of Woodcroft, the founder of the wizarding village of Hogsmeade, though presumably it wasn't a pub in those days, and whether it was Hengist's house or not it must be, at least in part, old enough for that to be possible. I say "At least in part" because I've a suspicion JKR might have been thinking of the famous Edinburgh pub called the Cramond Inn, one end of which is very old, although the rest is late 18^th C.

The fact that the name "Hogsmeade" makes an obvious set with "Hogwarts", without the village actually being named after the school, suggests that the name Hogsmeade probably predates the school. Ye the village (at least as a wizard community) cannot be that old, because Hengist was "of Woodcroft" and the earliest Woodcroft I can find only dates back to the 12^th C. This suggests that Hogsmeade may originally have been the name of a farm, as old as or older than the school, and the Three Broomsticks was a pre-existing farmhouse around which Hengist built his village. It is possible therefore that some of the buildings close to the pub are similarly ancient and are the remains of barns and labourers' cottages.

Given its age, the Three Broomsticks may have been the inn which was used as the goblins' HQ during the 1612 uprising. I'm inclined to think that that honour belongs to the Hog's Head, because the Hog's Head is a more sinister-seeming place and we know it's connected to a magical tunnel - but then again the Three Broomsticks is closer to the Shrieking Shack, which stands on what may well be a burial mound, so you can make a case for either pub. 'What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?'
By the sound of it – everywhere. Dervish and Banges, the wizarding equipment shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot Butterbeer and many places besides. [PoA ch. #08; p. 119]

       'Tell you what,' said Ron, his teeth chattering, 'shall we go for a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?'
       Harry was more than willing; the wind was fierce and his hands were freezing, so they crossed the road, and in a few minutes were entering the tiny inn.
       It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm and smoky. A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks up at the bar.
       'That's Madam Rosmerta,' said Ron. 'I'll get the drinks, shall I?' he added, going slightly red.
       Harry and Hermione made their way to the back of the room, where there was a small, vacant table between the window and a handsome Christmas tree which stood next to the fireplace. Ron came back five minutes later, carrying three foaming tankards of hot Butterbeer. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

       Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had just entered the pub with a flurry of snowflakes, shortly followed by Hagrid, who was deep in conversation with [cut] Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic.
       In an instant, Ron and Hermione had both placed hands on the top of Harry's head and forced him off his stool and under the table. Dripping with Butterbeer and crouching out of sight, Harry clutched his empty tankard and watched the teachers' and Fudge's feet move towards the bar, pause, then turn and walk right towards him. [cut]
       The Christmas tree beside their table rose a few inches off the ground, drifted sideways and landed with a soft thump right in front of their table, hiding them from view. Staring through the dense lower branches, Harry saw four sets of chair legs move back from the table right beside theirs, then heard the grunts and sighs of the teachers and minister as they sat down. [PoA ch. #10; p. 150]

There was a small chink of glass on wood. Someone had set down their glass. [PoA ch. #10; p. 156]

[cut] within minutes he was turning into the doorway of the Three Broomsticks. [cut] Hagrid was sitting alone in a corner, looking morose.
'Hi, Hagrid!' he said, when he had squeezed through the crammed tables and pulled up a chair beside him. [cut]
[Hagrid] gazed into the depths of his pewter tankard, which was the size of a large bucket, and sighed. [OotP ch. #25; p. 497]

'The last thing I remember was walking into the ladies' in the Three Broomsticks.' [cut]
'Well, I know I pushed open the door,' said Katie, 'so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it.' [HBP ch. #24; p. 483]

[cut] 'we need transport – brooms –'
'I've got a couple behind the bar,' [cut]
A second later they heard a loud bang as the front door of the pub burst open; two brooms had shot out into the street and were racing each other to Harry's side [HBP ch. #27; p. 543]

He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: [cut] light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks [DH ch. #28; p. 447]

[cut] the door of the Three Broomsticks burst open and a dozen cloaked and hooded Death Eaters dashed into the street [DH ch. #28; p. 447]

Nowadays the pub is a popular student haunt which is described in some detail. It is crowded, noisy and smoky, with wooden tables surrounded by chairs or stools; at least some of the tables are noticeably small. The building is described as tiny and yet the bar, in the sense of the room in which drinks are served, is large: this could mean that there is just one bar which occupies the whole ground floor, except for the lavatories, or it could mean that the building has a small, narrow frontage onto the street, but extends a long way back. The pub tends to be very busy - it takes Ron five minutes just to get three beers, although he may have spent some of that flirting with Rosmerta.

There is also a bar in the sense of a counter from which drinks are served, and at the back of the room, presumably the far side from the bar, there are a window and a fireplace. A Christmas tree is placed near the fireplace in season. There are at least two windows facing onto the High Street, although that may include an upstairs one.

Customers normally seem to drink from tankards, mugs or glasses, or possibly from glass tankards and glass mugs, but Hagrid has a pewter tankard the size of a large bucket. It's not clear whether he brings it with him, or whether Madam Rosmerta keeps it behind the bar for him. We do know she sometimes has a couple of broomsticks behind the bar.

We know that the Three Broomsticks has separate lavatories for "ladies" and (presumably) "gentlemen", and that the door of the ladies' opens inwards. The door of the pub itself opens outwards.

Although we are not actually told so, it is very likely that there is a beer-garden at the back of the Three Broomsticks, so customers can sit outside in fine weather. This would certainly be accessible through the pub but also probably from outside. There might be a turning into the beer-garden off the path that leads to the Shrieking Shack (to the left of the pub as you face it), and/or an alley running up the other side of the pub. If there is an alley from the mouth of which you can see into the beer-garden, that would probably account for some of the trees visible from the High Street.

[cut] into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot Butterbeer [PoA ch. #08; p. 119]

[cut] carrying three foaming tankards of Butterbeer. [cut]
Harry drank deeply. It was the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted and seemed to heat every bit of him from the inside. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149/150]

       'A small Gillywater –'
       'Mine,' said Professor McGonagall's voice.
       'Four pints of mulled mead –'
       'Ta, Rosmerta,' said Hagrid.
       'A cherry syrup and soda with ice and umbrella –'
       'Mmm!' said Professor Flitwick, smacking his lips.
       'So you'll be the redcurrant rum, Minister.' [PoA ch. #10; p. 150]

A third twitch of the wand and a dusty bottle and five glasses appeared in midair. The bottle tipped and poured a generous measure of honey-coloured liquid into each of the glasses, which then floated to each person in the room.
'Madam Rosmerta's finest, oak-matured mead,' said Dumbledore [HBP ch. #03; p. 50/51]

Winky was sitting on the same stool as last time, [cut] She was clutching a bottle of Butterbeer and swaying slightly on her stool, staring into the fire. As they watched her, she gave an enormous hiccough.
       'Winky is getting through six bottles a day now,' Dobby whispered to Harry.
       'Well, it's not strong, that stuff,' Harry said.
       But Dobby shook his head. ''Tis strong for a house-elf, sir,' he said. [GoF ch. #28; p. 466]

We know that the pub sells Butterbeer; Gillywater; redcurrant rum; fine, honey-coloured, oak-matured mead; mulled mead (which may or may not be made from the oak-matured stuff) and cherry syrup with soda (with ice and an umbrella if required). We aren't told what other drinks it serves, although they probably include Ogden's Firewhisky. Butterbeer is apparently alcoholic, but not very. It has a stronger effect on house-elves (perhaps just because of their small size) than on humans. It may be served hot and is very warming, and tastes delicious to a thirteen-year-old boy who's never tried it before - unlike Muggle beer which is served at room temperature or even chilled, tends if anything to be cooling, and has a taste which rarely appeals to children, and has to be acquired (I didn't acquire it until I was in my mid twenties). [cut] looking around he saw Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street towards them on high-heeled, fluffy slippers, wearing a silk dressing-gown embroidered with dragons.
       'I saw you Apparate as I was pulling my bedroom curtains! [cut] But what's wrong with Albus?' [cut]
       [cut} 'Madam Rosmerta, can he come into the Three Broomsticks while I go up to the school and get help for him?' [cut]
       'If you help me support him [cut] I think we can get him inside –' [HBP ch. #27; p. 542/543]

'Must have been minutes ago, it wasn't there when I put the cat out, but when I got upstairs –' [HBP ch. #27; p. 543]

He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village, and the curve in the road ahead that led off towards Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the heart, he remembered, with piercing accuracy, how he had landed here, nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore; [DH ch. #28; p. 447]

We do not know for certain whether Madam Rosmerta, the landlady of the Three Broomsticks, actually lives at the pub, but it seems likely that she does. She certainly lives very close to it. When Albus and Harry Apparate to Hogsmeade at the end of HBP Rosmerta appears in her bedroom wear, having seen them from her bedroom window, which is therefore nearby (and looks out onto the street); and the pub is also very nearby, since Harry asks if Albus may "come into" the pub rather than "go into", and seems to think getting there will be fairly easy for a very sick, unsteady old man. We know that many of the businesses have private rooms above them, facing the street, and Rosmerta apparently has a bedroom which is upstairs, faces the street and is near her business, so it's reasonable to think her curtained bedroom windows are over the pub.

DH confirms that Harry and Dumbledore landed at a point from which they could see the windows and High Stree frontage of the Three Broomsticks, and also the curve of the road towards Hogsmeade, and the mountains beyond the village. We don't know whether they were on the castle side or the far side of the pub, but the fact that Rosmerta came "down" the street to them suggests that they were on the far side from the castle relative to her, at least.

[cut] 'you know the first weekend in October's a Hogsmeade weekend?' [OotP ch. #16; p. 297]

The morning of the Hogsmeade visit dawned bright but windy. After breakfast they queued up in front of Filch, who matched their names to the long list of students who had permission from their parents or guardian to visit the village.
[cut] Harry walked on, out on to the stone steps and the cold, sunlit day. [OotP ch. #16; p. 298]

'I've told the others to meet us in the Hog's Head, that other pub, you know the one, it's not on the main road. I think it's a bit ... you know ... dodgy ... but students don't normally go in there, so I don't think we'll be overheard.'
They walked down the main street [cut] and turned up a side-street at the top of which stood a small inn. A battered wooden sign hung from a rusty bracket over the door, with a picture on it of a wild boar's severed head, leaking blood on to the white cloth around it. The sign creaked in the wind as they approached. [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

It was not at all like the Three Broomsticks, whose large bar gave an impression of gleaming warmth and cleanliness. The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. The bay windows were so encrusted with grime that very little daylight could permeate the room, which was lit instead with the stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. The floor seemed at first glance to be compressed earth, though as Harry stepped on to it he realised that there was stone beneath what seemed to be the accumulated filth of centuries.
Harry remembered Hagrid mentioning this pub in his first year: 'Yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hogs Head,' he had said, explaining how he had won a dragon's egg from a hooded stranger there. At the time Harry had wondered why Hagrid had not found it odd that the stranger kept his face hidden throughout their encounter; now he saw that keeping your face hidden was something of a fashion in the Hog's Head. There was a man at the bar whose whole head was wrapped in dirty grey bandages, though he was still managing to gulp endless glasses of some smoking, fiery substance through a slit over his mouth; two figures shrouded in hoods sat at a table in one of the windows; Harry might have thought them Dementors if they had not been talking in strong Yorkshire accents, and in a shadowy corner beside the fireplace sat a witch with a thick, black veil that fell to her toes. [OotP ch. #16; p. 299/300]

       The barman sidled towards them out of a back room. He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long grey hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry.
       'What?' he grunted.
       'Three Butterbeers, please,' said Hermione.
       The man reached beneath the counter and pulled up three very dusty, very dirty bottles, which he slammed on the bar.
       'Six Sickles,' he said.
       'I'll get them,' said Harry quickly, passing over the silver. The barman's eyes travelled over Harry, resting for a fraction of a second on his scar. Then he turned away and deposited Harry's money in an ancient wooden till whose drawer slid open automatically to receive it. Harry, Ron and Hermione retreated to the furthest table from the bar and sat down, looking around. The man in the dirty grey bandages rapped the counter with his knuckles and received another smoking drink from the barman.
       'You know what?' Ron murmured, looking over at the bar with enthusiasm. 'We could order anything we liked in here. I bet that bloke would sell us anything, he wouldn't care. I've always wanted to try Firewhisky –' [cut]
       'So, who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?' Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his Butterbeer [OotP ch. #16; p. 300/301]

The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished [OotP ch. #16; p. 301]

They were rolling through a snowy Hogsmeade. Harry caught a glimpse of the Hog's Head down its side street, the severed boar's head sign creaking in the wintry wind. [OotP ch. #24; p. 465]

'I did,' said Dumbledore. 'On a cold, wet night sixteen years ago, in a room above the bar at the Hog's Head inn. I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher' [OotP ch. #37; p. 740]

'I was staying at the Hog's Head, which I do not advise, incidentally – bed bugs, dear boy – but funds were low. Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn.' [HBP ch. #25; p. 508]

'Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, [cut] the pushing, thrusting young man who was prepared to listen at keyholes' [HBP ch. #25; p. 509]

A minute later they turned the corner into the side street where the Hog's Head's sign creaked a little, though there was no breeze. In contrast to the Three Broomsticks, the pub appeared to be completely empty. [HBP ch. #25; p. 517]

[cut] Harry, Ron and Hermione backed, as quickly as possible, down the nearest side street and the Death Eaters missed them by inches. They waited in the darkness [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

He, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall, trying not to make a sound. Then, round the corner, gliding noiselessly, came Dementors [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

[cut] the footsteps of the Death Eaters were becoming louder; but before Harry in his panic could decide what to do, there was a grinding of bolts nearby, a door opened on the left-hand side of the narrow street and a rough voice said, ‘Potter, in here, quick!’
       He obeyed without hesitation: the three of them hurtled through the open doorway.
       ‘Upstairs, keep the Cloak on, keep quiet!’ muttered a tall figure, passing them on his way into the street and slamming the door behind him.
       Harry had had no idea where they were, but now he saw, by the stuttering light of a single candle, the grubby, sawdust-strewn bar of the Hog’s Head. They ran behind the counter and through a second doorway, which led to a rickety wooden staircase, which they climbed as fast as they could. The stairs opened on to a sitting room with a threadbare carpet and a small fireplace, above which hung a single large oil painting of a blonde girl who gazed out at the room with a kind of vacant sweetness.
       Shouts reached them from the street below. Still wearing the Invisibility Cloak, they crept towards the grimy window and looked down. [DH ch. #28; p. 449]

Something huge and horned erupted from the wand: head down it charged towards the High Street and out of sight. [DH ch. #28; p. 450]

The Death Eaters strode back towards the High Street. Hermione moaned with relief, wove out from under the Cloak and sat down on a wobble-legged chair. Harry drew the curtains tight shut, [DH ch. #28; p. 450]

Harry’s attention was caught by something on the mantelpiece: a small, rectangular mirror propped on top of it, right beneath the portrait of the girl. [DH ch. #28; p. 450/451]

He turned away, lighting lamps with prods of his wand, [DH ch. #29; p. 451]

'I got food,' said Aberforth, and he sloped out of the room, reappearing moments later with a large loaf of bread, some cheese and a pewter jug of mead, which he set upon a small table in front of the fire [cut]
[cut] Harry and Ron sat slumped dozily in their chairs. [DH ch. #29; p. 452]

The old man’s eyes travelled to the painting of the girl over the mantelpiece. It was, now Harry looked around properly, the only picture in the room. There was no photograph of Albus Dumbledore, nor of anyone else. [DH ch. #29; p. 453]

       Aberforth remained fixed in his chair [cut] At last he cleared his throat, got to his feet, walked around the little table and approached the portrait of Ariana.
       'You know what to do,' he said.
       She smiled, turned and walked away [cut] along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her. They watched her slight figure retreating until she was swallowed by the darkness. [cut]
       'There's only one way in, now,' said Aberforth. 'You must know they've got all the old secret passageways covered at both ends.' [DH ch. #29; p. 459]

Larger and larger the two figures grew, until only their heads and shoulders filled the portrait. Then the whole thing swung forwards on the wall like a little door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed [DH ch. #29; p. 459]

The Hog's Head has a rather dodgy reputation, and may be the inn which was the headquarters of the 1612 goblin rebellion. ON the face of it its more sinister clientele, and the fact that it connects to a magical tunnel, make it seems a more likely venue than the Three Broomsticks - although on the other hand the Three Broomsticks is older and closer to the Shrieking Shack. Either way, the Hog's Head is certainly fairly venerable - Harry thinks of the floor as being covered with "the filth of centuries", so he must think that the pub appears to be at least two hundred years old. It is positioned at the top of a side-street with its main door facing east, south-east or south.

[We know this because the Trio go there mid- to late-morning on the first Saturday in October 1995 - which would have been the 7^th. At that point, two weeks after the equinox, the sun would be rising and setting a little south of due east, as well as being due south at noon. In mid- to late-morning it would be south-east or south-south-east. When the prospective recruits for Dumbledore's Army open the street door, sunlight shines right across the room, so at that moment the door must be facing the sun pretty directly. Ergo, the door faces more or less south-east and there are no buildings close in front of the pub in that direction, unless they are very, very low.]

The Hog's Head has bay windows. Over the door, hanging from a rusty bracket, there is a battered wooden sign painted with the severed head of a wild boar, lying on a white cloth background and leaking blood onto it. This ominous sign creaks in the wind - and sometimes even when there is no wind.

The Hog's Head is situated on a narrow side-street. We are not explicitly told whether the side-road the Hog's Head stands on is straight or not, or whether the pub stands across the top of the street, facing down it towards the High Street, or stands at the side of the road with its end-wall to the High Street. However, we do know that the pub's sign hangs over the door, rather than in a free-standing frame, and that makes it virtually certain that it hangs perpendicular to the front of the building. Given which, the fact that the Trio can clearly see what is painted on the sign as they approach the pub suggests they are coming at it more from the side than the front. If the side-road was straight, and the pub looked straight down it front-ways on, then anyone approaching the pub would be looking at the edge of the signboard, not its face.

We are also told in DH that as the Trio grope their way along the side-road, the door into the Hog's Head opens on their left. Even if this is a side-door, not the main entrance, if the pub faced down the street then at this point they would have to have pulled up with the facade of the pub facing them, and there's no sign of this. So we can conclude that the Hog's Head faces across the side-street on which it is situated, not along it. It's probably on the left as you face along the street with the High Street behind you, but that's not 100% clear as it's not definite which way the Trio are facing when the door opens on their left.

The Hog's Head is much less busy than The Three Broomsticks, at least on a school-visit Saturday, and what trade it does attract is even odder. It has a much smaller bar (in the sense of a room where drinks are served), which is dingy, dirty and smells of goats. It has a stone-flagged floor so encrusted with dirt that it looks like an earth floor and in DH, if not before, there is sawdust on it. There are bay windows, plural, which are so dirty it interferes with the light.

The presence of bay windows and the general state of delapidation suggest to me that the Hog's Head is probably tiled not thatched. If it were thatched the roof would most likely be falling off it, and the combination of bay windows with thatch seems to be extremely rare.

There is a door, with bolts, which leads into the bar, through which Aberforth summons the Trio to hide from Dementors in DH: this may be the main door or it might be a side-door.

There are rough wooden tables with candle-stubs on them, combatting the gloom but of course adding soot and grease to the dirt. Some of the tables stand in the windows. The bar (in the sense of a counter from which drinks are dispensed) has shelves under/behind it where beer is kept. On the counter is an ancient wooden till with an automatically-opening drawer, and behind the counter there is a door to a back room, probably private. There is a fireplace, with a shadowy corner by it.

Upstairs above the bar there is a room, or rooms, available to let. Accommodation is cheap but scruffy, with bed-bugs, but the rooms are at least lockable (with keyholes). The stair which leads upstairs to these rooms probably forks, since Snape was able to claim to have taken a wrong turning; given the general architecture of elderly British pubs, and the fact that Snape thought his excuse worth trying, it is likely that one branch of the stair leads to the bedrooms and the other to the lavatories.

Behind the bar there is a door leading to a rickety wooden stair - this is probably a different stair from the one to the rented rooms and (possibly) the lavatories, as it seems to lead directly to and through Aberforth's sitting-room. There's no suggestion of the stair branching off to either side: the Trio climb directly to the sitting-room without hesitation. We do not know whether this room is at the same level as the rooms to let, or above or below them: it could be a mezzanine floor, or a first or second floor (U.S. second or third floor).

The room is lit by lamps. It has a worn carpet, a small fireplace with a mantelpiece, at least four chairs at least one of which is wobbly-legged, and a small table in front of the fire.

There is only one picture of any kind in the room, which is a large portrait in oils of Ariana Dumbledore - a young, slight blonde girl, presumably in late Victorian clothing, with a sweetly vacant look. This hangs above the fireplace, and evidently high enough above the mantelpiece for small items on the mantelpiece to be "beneath" the portrait rather than in front of it.

It is not clear whether this portrait is full-length or head-and-shoulders: when Ariana returns with Neville her head and shoulders fill the frame but she may have come closer than she usually does. In either case, the picture probably shows Ariana standing, since she walks away into the portrait without any mention of standing up first. There appears to be a long tunnel in the portrait behind her: possibly she was originally painted standing in front of a door. The portrait itself swings out from the wall like a door and behind it are smooth stone steps leading into a passageway: it's not stated explicitly whether it is only the portrait which swings out, or whether a section of the wall behind it moves with it.

If the tunnel is physically real, that ought to mean that the Hog's Head is built into the side of the hillside, so that a tunnel may extend from an upstairs room into the hill. That would explain why the side-road is so short, if it ends at a steep slope. However, the tunnel is a recent addition (the "old secret passageways" are all guarded but this one isn't, therefore it's not old) and may not have real physical existence.

Aberforth must have other rooms - a bedroom, at least, since there's no mention of a bed in the sitting-room, and at least some sort of washing facility, unless he just uses Scourgify. He leaves the sitting-room and returns with food, and he probably left by the same door the Trio came in by, since there's no mention of any other door. In that case, either he went back down to the bar, or there must be at least one other door off the stairs, leading to a bedroom and perhaps a kitchen.

We know that the Hog's Head sells Butterbeer, in dirty bottles with rusty tops, and a strange, smoking, fiery thing. Ron speculates that it sells Firewhisky, but we don't get to see if he's right.

It is evident incidentally that the wizarding world has some sort of laws about underage drinking, because the fact that Ron thinks the Hog's Head might be careless enough to sell his fifteen-year-old self a Firewhisky shows that the Three Broomsticks isn't and wouldn't.

Unlike the Three Broomsticks, we have enough information on the interior contents of the Hog's Head to be able to hazard a guess as to how it is laid out.

The bar room is small but manages to contain at least two bay windows, a fireplace and a corner by that fireplace which is in shadow, as well as a bar counter.

The sitting-room must be more or less above the bar room, since it has a window which looks out onto the street. The fireplaces of the sitting-room and bar room are probably on the same wall, more or less one above the other, and that wall is most likely the one nearest the castle, since a tunnel (which may or may not have a real physical existence) leads from just above the fireplace towards the castle.

We are told that the bar room is small, and we know the sitting-room is probably above it, but we are also told that there is at least one guest bedroom available to rent, and which is above the bar. Because of the need to make both a sitting-room and a bedroom out of the same space as the bar, there is probably only the one guest room - or at least only one which is above the bar.

Snape may well have been lying when he claimed that he found himself at the door of the guest bedroom by accident, having come the wrong way up the stairs, but it must have been a lie which he hoped would seem feasible, so it is possible to take a wrong turning on the stairs. One turning leads to the room where Trelawney was staying; the other might lead to another bedroom or to lavatories. If there is more than one guest bedroom then it could be that Snape was also staying there as a guest and was claiming to have gone to the wrong room by mistake, or he might just have hoped they would think he was going for a pee. Since the Hog's Head is meant to be small and there must be lavatories somewhere, I've assumed that the other turning on the stair goes to the lavatories, but it's also possible that the lavatories are in an outhouse, and the alternative turning leads to another guest bedroom, in the same location where I have placed the lavatories in this plan.

The way I've reconstructed it, the interior dimensions of the building (that is, not including the thickness of the outer walls, which may be considerable) are around 23' by 30'6", with the seating area of the bar being about 23' by 13'. There is one bay window on the side-wall of the bar to the left of the door, and one at front middle, leaving a corner to the right of the door which doesn't get much illumination. Inside the bar, there's a stair to the left of the bar counter. You go up this stair until you reach a landing, then turn and face to your right. Now, you have a stair on your right leading to a guest bedroom, and one on the left which leads to a pair of lavatories and a tiny bathroom for use by guests.

As a paying guest, you would step out of your bedroom door onto a tiny landing, walk down a flight of steps to the main landing and then straight across the landing and up a second flight of steps. This would take you to another minor landing where the doors of the two lavatories would be in front of you, and the door of the guest bathroom (containing a shower and a small sink) would be on your left. Should you wish to descend to the bar you would go down from your bedroom to the main landing and then turn sharp left.

These public facilities are walled off from the landlord's own accomodation, which is accessed via a second stair with its foot in the back room behind the bar. I have reconstructed it as consisting of a medium-sized sitting-room and a small bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, with a walk-in built-in cupboard off the landing. Other than the sitting-room, the arrangement of Aberforth's rooms is unspecified and there are several ways of arranging them, but I have laid them out here with the waste pipes from the lavatories and sinks all on the back wall, and the kitchen on the end wall so that it can have a fireplace, with stove, on the same wall as the fireplace in the sitting-room.

If you want the tunnel which leads from above the fireplace to the Room of Requirement to be physically real, with the fireplace backed up against the hillside, then you can either have a slanting connection with only part of the back wall against earth, or you can have the whole wall against the hill and dispense with the window in Aberforth's bedroon, replacing it with an overhead skylight.

'Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?'
He knew that the Room would not be able to transform while there were still users inside it. [DH ch. #31; p. 501]

However, if there is a physically real tunnel just above the fireplace it raises questions about where the chimney fits, so it's probably simplest to assume that the tunnel exists at least partly in wizard space. This is borne out by the fact that Harry seems to regard the passage as part of the Room of Requirement.

The downstairs back room has a door to the outside. At The Three Broomsticks any outside area attached to the pub is probably used as a beer garden, but Aberforth uses his as a paddock for goats. There is also an internal door leading to a strangely-shaped storage area tucked under the public stairs.

'But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?' Hermione pressed on eagerly. 'In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain –' [PoA ch. #05; p. 61]

       The day was fine and breezy, and neither of them felt like staying indoors, so they walked past the Three Broomsticks and climbed a slope to visit the Shrieking Shack, the most haunted dwelling in Britain. It stood a little way above the rest of the village, and even in daylight was slightly creepy, with its boarded windows and dank overgrown garden.
       'Even the Hogwarts ghosts avoid it,' said Ron, as they leaned on the fence, looking up at it. 'I asked Nearly Headless Nick ... he says he's heard a very rough crowd live here. No one can get in. Fred and George tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut ...'
       [cut] they heard voices nearby. Someone was climbing towards the house from the other side of the hill; moments later, Malfoy had appeared, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle [PoA ch. #14; p. 205/206]

       Malfoy looked up at the crumbling house behind Ron.
       'Suppose you'd love to live here, wouldn't you, Weasley? Dreaming about having your own bedroom? I heard your family all sleep in one room – is that true?' [cut]
       The opportunity was too perfect to miss. Harry crept silently around behind Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, bent down and scooped a large handful of mud out of the path.[cut]
       Malfoy's head jerked forwards as the mud hit him; his silver-blond hair was suddenly dripping in muck. [cut]
       Ron had to hold onto the fence to keep himself standing, he was laughing so hard. [cut]
       [cut] Malfoy was staring madly around at the deserted landscape.
       Harry sneaked along the path, where a particularly sloppy puddle yielded some foul-smelling, green sludge.
       [cut] Harry [cut] picked up a stick, and lobbed it at Crabbe's back. [cut] Harry felt a great tug, then the Cloak slid off his face.
       For a split second, Malfoy stared at him.
       [cut] Then he turned tail and ran, at breakneck speed, back down the hill, Crabbe and Goyle behind him. [cut]
       'See you later,' said Harry, and without another word, he tore back down the path towards Hogsmeade. [PoA ch. #14; p. 206/207]

       And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Instead, Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.
       He and Hermione paused, gasping for breath, edging forwards. Both raised their wands to see what lay beyond.
       It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded-up. [cut]
       [cut] The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Hermione suddenly grabbed Harry's arm again. Her wide eyes were travelling around the boarded windows.
       'Harry,' she whispered, 'I think we're in the Shrieking Shack.'
       Harry looked around. His eyes fell on a wooden chair near them. Large chunks had been torn out of it; one of the legs had been ripped off entirely. [cut]
       At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. Both of them looked up at the ceiling. [cut]
       Quietly as they could, they crept out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs.
       They reached the dark landing.
       'Nox,' they whispered together, and the lights at the end of their wands went out. Only one door was open. [cut]
       Wand held tightly before him, Harry kicked the door wide open. [PoA ch. #17; p. 247/248]

[cut] the man in the shadows closed the door behind them. [cut]
'Expelliarmus!' he croaked, pointing Ron's wand at them. [PoA ch. #17; p. 248]

'I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was planted because I had come to Hogwarts. This house –' Lupin looked miserably around the room, '– the tunnel that leads to it – they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous.' [PoA ch. #18; p. 258/259]

At last the tunnel began to slope upwards and Harry saw a sliver of light ahead. [cut]
And then he heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, Harry edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall. [DH ch. #32; p. 524]

He was standing in the middle of a desolate but strangely familiar room, with peeling paper on the walls and all the windows boarded except for one. [cut] The single unblocked window revealed distant bursts of light where the castle stood, but inside the room it was dark except for a solitary oil lamp. [cut]
[cut] there was Lucius Malfoy sitting in the darkest corner, [DH ch. #32; p. 515]

And then he heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, Harry edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall. [cut]
[cut] He could see the edge of a table [cut] Snape was inches away from where he crouched [DH ch. #32; p. 524]

Snape strode past the gap, and Harry drew back a little [DH ch. #32; p. 524]

And for a moment Harry saw Snape's profile: [DH ch. #32; p. 525]

Voldemort swept from the room without a backwards glance [DH ch. #32; p. 527/528]

Now he was looking through the tiny crack between crate and wall, watching a foot in a black boot trembling on the floor.
[cut] As quietly as he could, he pulled himself up into the room. [DH ch. #32; p. 528]

Of those described in the books, the other notable Hogsmeade building is the Shrieking Shack. It has a reputation, even among ghosts, for being severely haunted (in fact, by an authentic teenage werewolf). We are told by Lupin that it is quite modern; having been built for his use at the same time the Whomping Willow was planted, which was during or just before his first year at Hogwarts - the academic year 1971/72.

However, he was a child at the time, and may have misunderstood what he was told about the provisions being made for him. Given that even the Hogwarts ghosts believe the place to be haunted, it may be that this is actually an older building which was gutted and remodelled inside for Lupin's use. Alternatively it could be a new building built on an ancient site which is believed to be haunted - most likely a burial mound, since we know the Shack sits on its own little hill.

The "meade" element in "Hogsmeade" probably doesn't mean "meadow", as that's a construction only found in English place names (the Scottish equivalent is "lea"). It may be a corruption of the Gaelic "Meadhanach", meaning "middle one". "Hough" can be a variant spelling of "howe", a burial-mound. If the name "Hogsmeade" is a bilingual one, as does sometimes occur in Scotland, it would make sense to think that the hill the Shrieking Shack stands on is an ancient burial mound; "Hogsmeade" means "middle howe"; "Hogwarts" means "Arthur's howe" ("Wart" being an old pet-name for people called Arthur; and there is a third mound somewhere in the opposite direction from the castle.

It is also possible that the Shack is as young as Lupin says it is, there's nothing mysterious about the site, and that it is simply haunted by a poltergeist generated by the energy of a distressed teenager (Lupin himself), as many people believe can happen in real life. The presence of such a spirit would certainly make things worse. But the idea that the Shack is built on an ancient burial mound, important enough to have a village named after it, would tie Voldemort's decision to use the Shack as a temporary base during the battle in with his liking for using important historical artefacts to house his Horcruxes, and his desire to symbolically conquer death.

The Shack is positioned up a slope from the Three Broomsticks, so that it stands slightly higher than the village. Given that the whole of Hogsmeade seems to be below the level of the castle grounds (of which more anon), it would be possible, if the Shack is on the castle side of the village, for it to be upslope from the village and yet approached on a level, or even downhill, from the castle side. However, when Harry goes down the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack the tunnel rises just before he gets there. More significantly, Malfoy and co. approach the Shack from the opposite side from the route from the Three Broomsticks, we are told that they are coming from the "the other side of the hill", and when Malfoy is freaked-out by Harry's partial appearance from behind the Invisibility Cloak he runs back the way he had come, and it is specified as being downhill. So the Shack definitely does stand on its own little lump, not just a fold in the ground, and has slopes more or less all round it. Its position is quite isolated, since the area around it is said to be deserted.

The path from the village up to the Shack is muddy and puddled, to the extent that algae (green goo) is growing in some of the puddles. So the hill isn't a simple convex mound, or the water would probably run off it; there are at least some bits where the path, and the hillside, folds and dips, and at least one of those dips is up the top near the fence.

There is a dank overgrown garden with a fence around it, low enough to lean on. There must be trees either in the garden or nearby, since Harry picks up a stick.

The tunnel to the Shack ascends a slope as it approaches the building, and then twists. The Shack is accessed from the tunnel via a hole, which does not currently appear to have a door over it in Harry's time. It is not clear whether the hole is in the floor or wall of the Shack or at the angle of the two, but since they are approaching the building from below it makes more sense to assume the hole is in the floor or very low on the wall. Careless though Hogwarts is about student safety it seems very unlikely that even Hogwarts would have allowed were-Remus to run loose in the tunnel, given that he could potentially get out at the Willow end by just barrelling past the tree. If the hole is in the floor it may have been covered by a trapdoor - or the hole might have been warded by magic. It may be that by DH the trapdoor has disintegrated or the magic barrier been turned off, and that's why a crate has been placed over the hole.

The room into which the tunnel opens has at least two windows - three, if it is the room in which we later see Voldemort looking out towards the castle. It cannot be a simple rectangle or square because in DH Harry looks along a gap between a crate and the wall, which should give him a narrow view parallel to and close to the wall, and he sees Snape stride past his viewpoint without leaving the room. Therefore, the wall Harry is looking at comes to a stop within the room. There must be a corner projecting inwards into the room, and Snape strides past that corner.

From that level, Harry and Hermione ascend stairs to get to where Sirius and Ron are. We do not immediately know whether the first, lower room is a basement whose windows open into a sunken "area", or whether it is on the ground floor. However, we later see Voldemort kill Snape in that room, and then sweep out to rejoin the battle. About forty minutes earlier, he is in a room with at least three windows, one of which has been unboarded and commands a view of the castle (that is, it does not open into a sunken area). If that room was a room on the ground floor (or higher) and the level on which he killed Snape was below ground, he would have had to descend into the basement (lugging Nagini behind him) to kill Snape, then go up the stairs again to exit the building. It seems more likely he would expect Snape to come to him, or at least meet him on the level he was going to exit from.

If the room where Voldemort met Snape was the same as the one he was in earlier, with the window towards Hogwarts, we know for sure that that room's windows are above ground, and also it makes it more likely the entrance from the tunnel is through the floor and not the wall. If the entrance is through the wall the house must be backed up against earth on that side, and that would be at least approximately on the castle side, making it difficult, although not impossible, to fit in a window facing the castle.

If he was on a higher level and came downstairs, still the likelihood is that he came down from the first floor to the ground floor, killed Snape and walked out of the door, rather than descending into the basement to kill Snape and then having to ascend again to get out. Either way, the likelihood is that the room Snape died in, into which the tunnel opens, is above ground, at least partially, though if it's built into sloping hillside it may be above ground on one side and below it on the other.

Furthermore, the level to which Harry and Hermione ascend had a "landing", which is a word one would not usually use of a ground floor even if there was a stair up to it from a basement. This again suggests that they came in on the ground floor and ascended to the first floor, rather than coming in in the basement and ascending to the ground floor.

Altogether, it is almost certain that the building has at least two above-ground storeys, and the tunnel opens into the ground floor. It also sounds fairly large - large enough to have "all the entrances", which suggests at least three, though that may include windows.

The fact that it is called a Shack suggested that it is made of timber, like Hagrid's cabin, rather than stone (the norm in Scotland) or brick. It's most likely a timber frame clad with weatherboarding - overlapping horizontal boards. It's also possible that it has a corrugated-iron roof, as these are common in the Highlands and fairly common in Galloway. Both the building itself and the internal stair are described as "crumbling", but it seems fairly sound: nobody falls through the floor. As far as its likely age goes, weatherboard buildings aren't very durable, so it's quite possible that it was only built in the early seventies, and yet was in a very poor state of repair by the mid nineties, after standing empty for sixteen years. It could be older and have been maintained to keep it going, but as a "shack" it's unlikely to be more than about a hundred and twenty years old.

In DH, Voldemort has unboarded one of the windows and, presumably, the door, since he exits, and not by the tunnel nor apparently by Apparition or Floo. Prior to that, when we see the Shack in PoA, all the entrances are sealed shut and the windows boarded, but either the boarding-up has large gaps in it or there is a skylight, because when Harry and Hermione come up the tunnel - at night! - they see light seep into the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack. There's no suggestion that the Shack is actually being artificially lit, nor is it likely that the light comes from Ron's wand since Ron and his wand are through a small opening, across a fair-sized room, through a door, up a stair, along a dark landing and through another door. Ergo, quite a lot of moonlight or starlight or glow from the Hogsmeade streetlamps is getting in somehow.

As you come out of the tunnel you enter what seems to be a living room, with at least three windows, plus peeling wallpaper and smashed furniture. When we see it in DH the furnishings include an old crate (which may be a recent addition by Voldemort) and a table. If this is the same room in which Voldemort speaks to Lucius, we know that at least one of the windows looks towards the castle. A door on the right leads to a hallway (which is "shadowy" but not pitch-dark - again, clearly there is light getting in). From the hallway, a crumbling stair leads to a dark landing with at least two doors off it. One of those doors leads to a bedroom, which is directly above the living room they entered through.

We can surmise that light is also getting into the bedroom. Harry and Hermione extinguish their wands before they enter the room, yet they can see quite well inside. This is not because Sirius has used Ron's wand to cast Lumos, because he is holding the wand, and yet he is "in the shadows". We do not know for sure, however, that there isn't a lit candle somewhere in the room.

We aren't clearly told whether the tunnel comes up through the living-room floor, or through one of the walls. The tunnel certainly does approach the entrance from a lower level, since Harry pulls himself up to get into the room in DH, but watching through the entrance he sees Snape's profile (and not through Tom's eyes) when Snape is fairly close to him, which suggests that he is not looking at him from underneath. That makes it sound as though the entrance is a door in the wall, not a trapdoor in the floor - yet a hole in the floor is a lot easier to explain structurally.

If the entrance is in a wall that would mean that the Shack stands on a fold of ground, so that at least part of its ground floor is above ground on one side and below it on another, to enable the tunnel to run through earth and then hit a wall rather than coming up under a floor. That means that the highest point of the hill is behind the Shack, though perhaps inside its garden. It may have been built below and partly into the summit of the hill for warmth and protection from the wind - or if it is in fact a very old building, or built on the ruins of one, the wind could have caused earth to pile up against it.

The tunnel should approach the Shack more or less from the Hogwarts side, yet if this is the same room in which Voldemort is standing when he sends Lucius to find Snape, it has a window facing the castle. That would mean that any rising ground which might be piled against the wall on the Hogwarts side either didn't reach as high as the window (in which case, the window would be close to the ground when seen from the outside), or it was only at one end of the wall.

We must assume, incidentally, that the Shack is warded to prevent anyone from Apparating into it (or probably out of it), and that any fireplaces are not connected to the Floo network. If it were not so, an enemy could Apparate or Floo into the Shack and then use the tunnel to penetrate the school grounds, and if it were possible to do so, Peter would probably know about it and tell Tom, and Draco could have brought Death Eaters into the grounds at any time without using the Vanishing Cabinet.

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Layout

The day was fine and breezy, and neither of them felt like staying indoors, so they walked past the Three Broomsticks and climbed a slope to visit the Shrieking Shack, the most haunted dwelling in Britain. It stood a little way above the rest of the village [cut]
[cut] Someone was climbing towards the house from the other side of the hill; moments later, Malfoy had appeared, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle [PoA ch. #14; p. 205/206]

       For a split second, Malfoy stared at him.
       [cut] Then he turned tail and ran, at breakneck speed, back down the hill, Crabbe and Goyle behind him. [cut]
       'See you later,' said Harry, and without another word, he tore back down the path towards Hogsmeade. [PoA ch. #14; p. 207]

He and Dumbledore were shivering and dripping in the middle of the dark High Street in Hogsmeade. [HBP ch. #27; p. 541]

[cut] looking around he saw Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street towards them [cut]
'I saw you Apparate as I was pulling my bedroom curtains!' [HBP ch. #27; p. 542/543]

       And she pointed into the sky, in the direction of Hogwarts. [cut]
       There it was, hanging in the sky above the school: the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue [cut]
       'Must have been minutes ago, it wasn't there when I put the cat out, but when I got upstairs –' [HBP ch. #27; p. 543]

When Draco Malfoy is freaked out by Harry's partial appearance from behind the Invisibility Cloak, he runs down the hill the Shrieking Shack stands on, on the side away from the village. Subsequent events suggest he was running as hard as he could back to the school, so that means that that side of the Shack probably faces the school, and the Shrieking Shack and its hill are between the village and the school.

It is, in any case, a fairly safe bet that that far side of the hill faces the school. If it faces away from the High Street and away from the school, with its back to open country, what would Draco have been doing on that side anyway? I suppose it's possible he just fancied a nice country walk; but given that this was early in the day, not long after they all arrived in Hogsmeade, it seems more likely he was coming up that far side of the hill because he had come to the Shrieking Shack first, before proceeding to the village, and that far side of the hill faces the school.

Although it isn't absolutely clear, it certainly sounds as though the Shrieking Shack is on the same side of the High Street as the Three Broomsticks. It's slightly ambiguous which way the Three Broomsticks faces. Rosmerta almost certainly lives over the pub. She thinks that she would have been able to see the Dark Mark over the Astronomy Tower when she put the cat out, had it been present at that time, so the door she puts the cat out by faces towards the school. Normally you would expect she would put the cat out by a back door into a yard or garden, not onto the street, so that would mean the back of the pub was towards the school.

On the other hand, her bedroom window must face the High Street, since Harry and Albus Apparate to the middle of the High Street and Rosmerta sees them from her bedroom window (or says that she does) - and she also sees the Dark Mark from an upstairs window. But there's nothing to prove that it was her bedroom window from which she saw the Mark, and given the hint that the Shrieking Shack is on the same side of the road as the pub, I'm inclined to think that the Three Broomsticks has its back to the school.

[cut] the three of them left Honeydukes for the blizzard outside. [cut]
       [cut] They headed up the street, heads bowed against the wind, Ron and Hermione shouting through their scarves.
       'That's the Post Office –'
       'Zonko's is up there –'
       'We could go up to the Shrieking Shack –'
       'Tell you what,' said Ron, his teeth chattering, 'shall we go for a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?'
       [cut] they crossed the road, and in a few minutes were entering the tiny inn. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

Harry [cut] emerged into the sunlight outside Honeydukes [cut]
       They set off up the High Street. [cut]
       They went to the Post Office; Ron pretended to be checking the price of an owl to Bill in Egypt so that Harry could have a good look around. [cut]
       Then they visited Zonko's [cut]
       The day was fine and breezy, and neither of them felt like staying indoors, so they walked past the Three Broomsticks and climbed a slope to visit the Shrieking Shack [PoA ch. #14; p. 205]

They walked down the main street past Zonko's Wizarding Joke Shop [cut] past the post office [cut] and turned up a side-street at the top of which stood a small inn. [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

[cut] when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. Ron pointed with a thickly gloved hand towards Honeydukes, which was mercifully open [HBP ch. #12; p. 228]

'Good evening, Rosmerta, good evening ... forgive me, I'm off to the Hog's Head' [HBP ch. #25; p. 517]

It is obvious that there is a sequence of shops which goes Honeydukes -> Post Office -> Zonko's -> the Three Broomsticks -> the Shrieking Shack. It's also clear that the Three Broomsticks end is the end nearest to Hogwarts, since as they approach from Hogwarts they come to Zonko's before Honeydukes, to Zonko's before the Hog's Head and to the Three Broomsticks before the Hog's Head.

As they walk up from Honeydukes towards the Three Broomsticks, they say "That's the Post Office" rather than "This is the Post Office", which suggests that the Post Office is on the opposite side of the street from Honeydukes. The Three Broomsticks definitely is on the other side from Honeydukes, and the Shrieking Shack is probably on the same side as the Three Broomsticks. Since we know the Shrieking Shack is probably on the Hogwarts side of the village, that means that the Three Broomsticks and the Post Office are on the Hogwarts side of the High Street, and Honeydukes is on the other side

"They walked down the main street past Zonko's Wizarding Joke Shop [cut] past the post office" sounds as though Zonko's is probably on the same side of the road as the Post Office. "Zonko's is up there" could mean it's further up the street, or that it is up a side turning or alley.

'That's the Post Office –' [cut]
[cut] they crossed the road, and in a few minutes were entering the tiny inn. [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

They bundled their scarves back over their faces and left the sweet shop. The bitter wind was like knives on their faces after the sugary warmth of Honeydukes. The street was not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying towards their destinations. The exceptions were two men a little ahead of them, standing just outside the Three Broomsticks. [HBP ch. #12; p. 230]

There is an ambiguity about the distance from Honeydukes to the Three Broomsticks. The statement that "in a few minutes they were entering the tiny inn", from a starting-point by the Post Office, suggests that the distance from the Post Office to the Three Broomsticks is about 160 yards. Yet as they leave Honeydukes Harry thinks of two men outside the Three Broomsticks as being just "a little ahead". It may well be that when they took "a few minutes" to get from the Post Office to the pub it was because they were fighting against the wind, and/or because the street was crowded.

They walked down the main street past Zonko's Wizarding Joke Shop [cut] past the post office [cut] and turned up a side-street at the top of which stood a small inn. [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

'Good evening, Rosmerta, good evening ... forgive me, I'm off to the Hog's Head' [cut]
A minute later they turned the corner into the side street where the Hog's Head's sign creaked a little, though there was no breeze. In contrast to the Three Broomsticks, the pub appeared to be completely empty. [HBP ch. #25; p. 517]

[cut] Harry, Ron and Hermione backed, as quickly as possible, down the nearest side street and the Death Eaters missed them by inches. They waited in the darkness [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

He, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall, trying not to make a sound. Then, round the corner, gliding noiselessly, came Dementors [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

[cut]there was a grinding of bolts nearby, a door opened on the left-hand side of the narrow street and a rough voice said, 'Potter, in here, quick!'
[cut] he saw [cut] the grubby, sawdust-strewn bar of the Hog's Head. [DH ch. #28; p. 449]

We know that seen from a position close the the Three Broomsticks, the turning to the Hog's Head is the closest side-street, and the distance from the Three Broomsticks to the turning up to the Hog's Head takes Harry and Dumbledore about a minute to walk. There's no indication that anything impedes their progress, so at normal walking speed that means a distance of about 80 yards.

The Trio pass Zonko's and the Post Office to get to the turning to the Hog's Head, and there's no mention of crossing the road. This tends to suggest that Zonko's, the Post Office and the turning to the Hog's Head are all on the same side of the road. This is confirmed by the fact that we've established that the Hog's Head faces across its side-street, not down it, that it faces more or less east and that it is almost certainly on the left side of the street as you stand with your back to the High Street. If all those things are true, the side street has to be on the Hogwarts side of the High Street.

We don't know whether the turning to the Hog's Head comes before or after Honeydukes: it depends on whether you think that when Harry emerged from Honeydukes and saw two men outside the Three Broomsticks as being "a little ahead" they were more or less than 80 yards from him. The fact that Honeydukes isn't mentioned as being one of the shops they walk past to get to the turning to the Hog's Head may mean that the turning comes before Honeydukes; but it may just be that Honeydukes hasn't been mentioned because it's on the other side of the road.

       'Well, I think that went quite well,' said Hermione happily, as she, Harry and Ron walked out of the Hog's Head into the bright sunlight a few moments later. Harry and Ron were clutching their bottles of Butterbeer.
       'That Zacharias bloke's a wart,' said Ron, who was glowering after the figure of Smith, just discernible in the distance. [cut]
       They had turned into the High Street and she paused outside Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, where there was a handsome display of pheasant feather quills in the window. [OotP ch. #16; p. 310]

[cut] Harry, Ron and Hermione backed, as quickly as possible, down the nearest side street and the Death Eaters missed them by inches. They waited in the darkness [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

He, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall, trying not to make a sound. Then, round the corner, gliding noiselessly, came Dementors [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

The side-street up which the Hog's Head stands is either very long or very short, or at such an angle that it is nearly parallel to the High Street. We know this because as the Trio emerge from the Hog's Head they say a few seconds' worth of words and then they see Zacharias as so far distant he is barely discernable, which suggests he is getting on for a couple of hundred yards away.

If they are looking at him down the other end of the side-road, either the side-road is a couple of hundred yards long, or it is at such an angle that they can see a long way along the High Street from it (and if so, it must be so angled that it looks down the High Street away from the Three Broomsticks, since they turn a definite sharp corner in getting from the Three Broomsticks to the Hog's Head). On the other hand, if they are seeing him over a great distance because they've all already turned onto the High Street, they must have got from the Hog's Head to the High Street in little more than the time it takes to say "Well, I think that went quite well" and "That Zacharias bloke's a wart".

The description in DH, where the Trio turn into the side-street, grope their way along a wall in darkness and then are called into the Hog's Head by Aberforth, rules out the side-street being hundreds of yards long. It's either very short indeed or raked at a steep angle looking down the High Street - or both.

At any rate, a moment after seeing Zacharias in OotP, the Trio come to Scrivenshaft's, which is obviously right by the turning to the Hog's Head. The fact that it says "They had turned into the High Street" rather than "They turned into the High Street" suggests that they were already on the High Street when they were glaring at Zacharias, and that the side-road the Hog's Head stands on is very short.

They walked down the main street [cut] and turned up a side-street at the top of which stood a small inn. [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

They were rolling through a snowy Hogsmeade. Harry caught a glimpse of the Hog's Head down its side street, the severed boar's head sign creaking in the wintry wind. [OotP ch. #24; p. 465]

The side-road the Hog's Head stands on is either straight or, if curved, is curved in such a way that the pub (which we know is at the far end of the side-road) is still visible from the High Street. As established above in the section on the Hog's Head, pedestrians walking up the side road or looking up it from the High Street are seeing the pub more or less side-on, not frontways-on, and the road is oriented so that the front of the pub faces more or less south-east.

Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish & Banges) [GoF ch. #27; p. 443]

       'So ... where d'you want to go?' Harry asked as they entered Hogsmeade. The High Street was full of students [cut[
       They wandered towards Dervish and Banges. A large poster had been stuck up in the window [cut]
       The ten escaped Death Eaters were staring out of every shop window he and Cho passed. It started to rain as they passed Scrivenshaft's; cold, heavy drops of water kept hitting Harry's face and the back of his neck.
       'Um ... d'you want to get a coffee?' said Cho tentatively, as the rain began to fall more heavily.
       'Yeah, all right,' said Harry, looking around. 'Where?'
       'Oh, there's a really nice place just up here; haven't you ever been to Madam Puddifoot's?' [OotP ch. #25; p. 492/493]

Dervish & Banges is at one end of the High Street. It appears that it is at the Hogwarts-lane end, since Harry and Cho come to it first; it is certainly at the other end of the High Street from Madam Puddifoot's, since they come to Dervish & Banges, then pass many other shops including Scrivenshaft's before they reach the turning to the tea shop. They seem to pass quite a lot of shops before they even get as far as Scrivenshaft's, which we know is very near the turning to the Hog's Head, and thus only about 80 yards from the Three Broomsticks: this suggests that the distance from Dervish & Banges to the Three Broomsticks is moderately long.

Because the fork in the road that leads towards the stile and the mountain is described as "past Dervish & Banges" it also seems likely that the shop is actually slightly past the junction with the lane from Hogwarts, and into the lane to the mountain - but it cannot be very far into it, because Harry and Cho wander to the shop from the point at which they enter Hogsmeade, with no suggestion that this requires a long detour.

The fact that they "wandered towards" the shop rather than being described as going sharply round a corner also suggests, although it does not prove, that the shop is on your right as you face down the High Street, or on your left as you face the mountain. That is, when you enter the High Street coming from Hogwarts Dervish &: Banges is facing you and you get to it by walking across the lane which leads to the stile, rather than having to describe a sharp turn around the point of the fork to access a shop which has its back to you when you first enter Hogsmeade.

The position of Gladrags is undefined, but it is probably fairly near Dervish & Banges - but not very close, since the Trio "[make] their way up the High Street" in between the two shops.

It started to rain as they passed Scrivenshaft's; cold, heavy drops of water kept hitting Harry's face and the back of his neck.
       'Um ... d'you want to get a coffee?' said Cho tentatively, as the rain began to fall more heavily.
       'Yeah, all right,' said Harry, looking around. 'Where?'
       'Oh, there's a really nice place just up here; haven't you ever been to Madam Puddifoot's?' she said brightly, leading him up a side road and into a small teashop that Harry had never noticed before. [OotP ch. #25; p. 493]

'Women!' he muttered angrily, sloshing down the rain-washed street with his hands in his pockets. [cut]
He turned right and broke into a splashy run, and within minutes he was turning into the doorway of the Three Broomsticks. [OotP ch. #25; p. 497]

Like the Hog's Head and possibly Zonko's, Madam Puddifoot's is up a side-road, and there is a suggestion that it is on the same side of the road as Scrivenshaft's. It is so placed that when you come out of the side-road onto the High Street, the Three Broomsticks is to your right.

From the point at which Madam Puddifoot's side-road disgorges onto the High Street, Harry takes "a few minutes" to run to the Three Broomsticks. That ought to make it about 600 yards, but Harry is probably not running flat out, in bad weather and with other pedestrians to dodge, so it's probably more like 400 yards. 'Ill do the practice sessions in Hogsmeade before I decide about taking the test.'
And so the following weekend, Ron joined Hermione and the rest of the sixth-years who would turn seventeen in time to take the test in a fortnight. Harry felt rather jealous watching them all get ready to go into the village; [HBP ch. #21; p. 433]

'I did it – well, kind of!' Ron told Harry enthusiastically when he caught sight of him. 'I was supposed to be Apparating to outside Madam Puddifoot's teashop and I overshot it a bit, ended up near Scrivenshaft's, but at least I moved!' [HBP ch. #21; p. 437]

When an Apparition class is held in Hogsmeade, Ron overshoots Madam Puddifoot's and ends up at Scrivenshaft's instead. That means that from the point of view of the Apparition class, Scrivenshaft's and Madam Puddifoot's are in the same general direction, and Madam Puddifoot's is nearer.

Since Scrivenshaft's is in between Madam Puddifoot's and Dervish & Banges, this means that the area where the Apparition classes were held is at the far end of the High Street from Dervish & Banges, and from the lane to Hogwarts. This could be slight evidence of the existence of a village hall or a communal sports-green at the Madam Puddifoot's end of the village.

       Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend had just emerged from the Three Broomsticks pub. [cut] Harry backed into the wall of Honeydukes to stop Rita Skeeter hitting him with her crocodile-skin handbag.
       When they were gone, Harry said, 'She's staying in the village. [cut]
       'She's gone,' said Hermione, looking right through Harry towards the end of the High Street. [GoF ch. #19; p. 279/280]

Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village.
Harry had never been in this direction before. The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking towards the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. [GoF ch. #27; p. 451]

There is a slight suggestion that there is a residential/rental area at the opposite end of the High Street from the Three Broomsticks, since Rita Skeeter emerges from the Three Broomsticks, walks past Honeydukes and heads down the street, and Harry then remarks that she is staying in the village. There are also scattered residential houses, and/or farms, between Dervish & Banges and the mountain, of which more anon.

It is strongly implied in this scene that it is possible to see all the way down the High Street from Honeydukes to the end furthest from the Three Broomsticks, which tells us the High Street is fairly straight. In DH we also see that there is a point on the High Street from which you can see the front of the Three Broomsticks and also see the road begin to curve around towards Hogwarts, which again suggests the High Street is pretty straight until that curve.

Against this, JK Rowling's own map suggests that as you walk down the central road of Hogsmeade, heading away from the castle end, that road bends sharply left and then right: but perhaps once the road bends away it is no longer considered to be part of the High Street.

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They walked between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars and turned left on to the road into the village [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

We know that to get to Hogsmeade you turn left at the Hogwarts front gates. JK Rowling's own map states that the road which runs round the outside of the Hogwarts grounds, from Hogsmeade station to the front gates, "skirts" the village, and looks as if it passes alongside the village whilst remaining close to the school's boundary-wall the whole way.

[cut] the coach set off all by itself, bumping and swaying in procession.
The coach smelled faintly of mould and straw. Harry felt better since the chocolate, but still weak. Ron and Hermione kept looking at him sideways, as though frightened he might collapse again.
As the carriage trundled towards a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates, flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars [PoA ch. #05; p. 68]

A hundred horseless carriages stood waiting for them outside the station. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville climbed gratefully into one of them, the door shut with a snap and a few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the track towards Hogwarts castle. [GoF ch. #11; p. 151]

Through the gates, flanked with statues of winged boars, and up the sweeping drive the carriages trundled [GoF ch. #12; p. 152]

Rattling and swaying, the carriages moved in convoy up the road. When they passed between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds [OotP ch. #11; p. 181]

       They set off towards the lane that led to the school. [cut]
       They trudged up the dark, deserted lane, following the freshly made carriage tracks. Harry looked sideways at Tonks under his Cloak. [cut] And so they tramped on through the cold night in silence, Tonks's long cloak whispering on the ground behind them.
       Having always travelled there by carriage, Harry had never before appreciated just how far Hogwarts was from Hogsmeade Station. With great relief he finally saw the tall pillars on either side of the gates [HBP ch. #08; p. 150/151]

That the road skirts the village is a given, since Rowling specifically says so. That it does so whilst remaining very close to the boundary wall is less canonical, since Rowling's map is very rough, and it doesn't really fit what we see in the books.

       The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant rabbit than anything else. Harry hurried along it, stumbling now and then on the uneven floor, holding his wand out in front of him.
       It took ages, but Harry had the thought of Honeydukes to sustain him. After what felt like an hour, the passage began to rise. Panting, Harry sped up [cut]
       Ten minutes later, he came to the foot of some worn, stone steps [PoA ch. #10; p. 146]

For one thing, Harry's journey along the tunnel from the castle to Honeydukes probably takes him at least forty minutes (a part that at least feels like an hour, followed by a definite ten minutes), even allowing for the fact that a first-time journey along an unknown route usually feels a lot longer than it is.

Even given that the tunnel is dark, rough going, Harry is hurrying, so he should have travelled well over a mile in forty minutes. The tunnel winds about, which will reduce the amount of distance it covers, but even so it sounds as though the distance from the castle to Honeydukes must be getting on for a mile. For the station road to be both very close to the boundary wall and skirting the edge of the village, the outskirts of the village on that side would have to be about three-quarters of a mile from the village High Street, and while that's not impossible it would be, literally, a stretch.

Harry's thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush. [cut]
        It was a little while before Harry became aware that the voices of Katie Bell and her friend, which were being carried back to him on the wind, had become shriller and louder. Harry squinted at their indistinct figures. [cut]
       They rounded a corner in the lane [cut]
       Harry looked around; the landscape seemed deserted. [cut]
       He began to sprint towards the school; [cut] he hurtled round a bend in the lane and collided with what seemed to be an enormous bear on its hind legs.
       'Hagrid!' he panted, disentangling himself from the hedgerow into which he had fallen. [HBP ch. #12; p. 233/234]

As they flew over the dark, twisting lane down which they had walked earlier, Harry heard, over the whistling of the night air in his ears, Dumbledore muttering in some strange language again. He thought he understood why as he felt his broom shudder for a moment when they flew over the boundary wall into the grounds: [HBP ch. #27; p. 544]

In any case the road from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade is described as a twisting lane, with hedges alongside it and empty countryside around it, which doesn't sound like the Hogwarts boundary wall, and when Harry and Dumbledore fly along the lane and then cross the boundary wall, there's nothing to suggests they've been flying alongside the boundary all the way from the village. And we are told that they cross the wall, not that they fly over the gate, so it's not a case of following a lane which runs around the wall until they reach the gate. It sounds more as if the lane runs across the countryside until it meets the wall, at a point other than the gate.

[Their reason for following the lane, with all its twists and turns, instead of heading across open country, may have been because using the bright glow of the Dark Mark as a guide in darkness would dazzle them so they needed another guide, and in any case they don't necessarily follow it exactly or for long. It may just be a general pointer.]

According to Rowling's own map, the carriage-road from the station skirts the edge of the village, yet it appears also to hug the edge of the Hogwarts grounds, which would mean that the village came right up to the boundary wall. This doesn't fit with how the lane is described in the books.

It's possible that the road from the station doesn't run around the boundary wall, as it appears to do in Rowling's map, but instead swings well away from it, passing along the edge of the village; or that the boundary of the grounds itself bulges out towards the village, and the road with it, so that the village appraoches the wall at one point and yet is quite far from the gates. It's quite true that the road from the station to the school is also sometimes called a lane.

However, for reasons explained in the section on the Hogwarts grounds, we need the road from the station to the gates to be as short as possible, not looping far off across the countryside. This is basically because the Thestral-drawn carriages have to get from the station, all the way along the road and up the school drive in signficantly less time than it takes the first-years to boat across a lake which is so narrow you can look across it and recognize somebody standing on the other side.

We can compromise and assume that the carriage road swings a few hundred yards away from the school, crosses open land in between the school and the village, then joins with the lane to Hogsmeade and turns back towards the school. The outskirts of the village spread right up to the carriage road, but only at a point which is quite a long way from the Hogwarts gates, and the lie of the land prevents these houses from being visible from the Hogwarts track (Harry sees only deserted countryside all around when he stands partway along the Hogsmeade lane).

Coming from the village, you pass down the winding lane and then into the final leg of the station road, which continues towards the school, approaches close to the boundary wall and then bears left to hug the wall until it reaches the gates. It is at the point at which the road bears left that Harry and Dumbledore fly across the boundary wall.

What do we know about the shape of the lane? We know that at the village end, relative to the more-or-less straight High Street, the road describes a curve when it turns towards Hogsmeade: it's not a straigtforward T-junction or sharp turn.

We can see that the route from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade has at least two sharp bends in it, although at least one of those is probably after it fuses with the station road. It is edged by hedges, which in places are low enough to look over, or have gates in which can be looked over (Harry looks around at the deserted countryside) and in places are tall enough to obscure the view, or have trees alongside them which obscure it - Harry looked around and saw the deserted countryside, and didn't see that Hagrid was in the lane.

'I was with Grawp,' said Hagrid happily. 'Los' track o' the time. He's got a new home up in the mountains now, Dumbledore fixed it – nice big cave. He's much happier than he was in the Forest.' [HBP ch. #08; p. 161/162]

[cut] he hurtled round a bend in the lane and collided with what seemed to be an enormous bear on its hind legs.
'Hagrid!' he panted, disentangling himself from the hedgerow into which he had fallen.
'Harry!' said Hagrid, [cut] 'Jus' bin visitin' Grawp, he's comin' on so well yeh wouldn' –' [HBP ch. #12; p. 234]

‘Heard You-Know-Who from up in our cave,’ said Hagrid grimly. ‘Voice carried, didn’ it? [cut] Smashed our way through the boundary by the forest, Grawpy was carryin’ us, Fang an’ me.' [DH ch. #31; p. 498]

Voldemort's voice reverberated from the walls and floor, and Harry realised that he was talking to Hogwarts and to all the surrounding area, that the residents of Hogsmeade and all those still fighting in the castle would hear him as clearly as if he stood beside them [DH ch. #33; p. 529]

Hagrid's position is interesting. We're told he has just come from visiting Grawp, not out of the school gates. He cannot have come from the direction of Hogsmeade, unless he has for some reason been standing still for a long time. Katie Bell's party, followed shortly thereafter by Harry's party, round a bend in the road and Katie then has her magical accident with the cursed necklace. Harry looks around and sees nobody, sprints down a stretch of road, rounds another bend - apparently the next one he comes to - and then collides immediately with Hagrid. If Hagrid had been walking from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, and had just rounded that bend heading away from Harry and towards the school, a few seconds beforehand he would have been on the same straight or gently curved bit of road as Harry, approaching the bend from Harry's side, and Harry would have seen him, walking away towards the bend.

Therefore, Hagrid must have come into the lane from another stretch of road, other than the one Harry is on. He might have come from the right as you face Hogwarts, the direction of Hogsmeade station, although in that case Grawp's cave must be a long way away (from the station to the gates is a long walk and the mountains in that direction must be further). More conveniently Grawp's cave may be in the mountains which are near Hogsmeade, where Sirius's cave was - which you would expect given that Hagrid was able to hear Voldemort's broadcast voice from there, and that broadcast, like the later one, was (according to Harry) probably restricted to the area around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. In that case, there must be a lane which branches off to the left as you face Hogwarts, leading away from Hogsmeade and towards the mountains.

[We can surmise that Grawp's cave is not near one of the Forest gates, and it is some distance around the Forest's edge from the main gates, because it is easier and quicker for Hagrid and Grawp to smash through the boundary wall and head for the castle straight through the Forest, rather than going round by the path.]

Either way, when Harry crashed into him Hagrid was probably heading into Hogsmeade to visit the pub. If he had been heading back to Hogwarts he would have been facing away from Harry, and although it's not made explicit there's no mention of Hagrid having to turn round when Harry collides with him.

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Harry wrapped his scarf over his lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. [HBP ch. #12; p. 228]

It may be that a fold in the land obscures this mountain-bound lane from the Hogsmeade route at this point. This is better than the idea that the hedges are so high, or there are so many trees clumped at the edge of the lane, that the view even of someone as tall as Hagrid is obscured by them. If that was the case - if the lane was sheltered by high hedges or clumps of trees like that - and given that it also has two sharp bends in it, you wouldn't expect the wind to whip along it to the extent that we are told that it does.

They walked between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars and turned left on to the road into the village [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

[cut] he hurtled round a bend in the lane and collided with what seemed to be an enormous bear on its hind legs. [HBP ch. #12; p. 234]

Although the twisting stretch of lane that leads to Hogsmeade High Street has to be a separate entity from the road to the station which runs around the school, there's no indication that after turning left out of the gates they then turn off into another road to get to the village. Given that the station road has to start by swinging out towards the village, this most likely means that they come out of the gates, follow the station road left along the boundary wall and then right towards the village, and then to get onto the lane that joins the High Street they actually keep going in a straight line across the top of a T-junction, while it is the station road which turns off to the left before running along the edge of the village.

       Malfoy looked up at the crumbling house behind Ron. [cut]
       [cut] Harry felt a great tug, then the Cloak slid off his face.
       For a split second, Malfoy stared at him.
       [cut] Then he turned tail and ran, at breakneck speed, back down the hill, Crabbe and Goyle behind him. [PoA ch. #14; p. 206/207]

It makes sense to think that the lane from Hogwarts heads towards the hill the Shrieking Shack stands on, and then turns sharp right and curves round in a semi circle, out and round and then left back towards the village, skirting the base of the hill. That would explain in one both the sharp corner in the lane, and the reason why Draco and co. approached the Shrieking Shack from the side away from the village, and then fled back that way in order to get to the school. If there are hedges on both sides of the lane, which is unclear, then there must be a gate or stile at that point, or a turning into a side track, leading up to the Shack.

The High Street was full of students ambling up and down, peering into the shop windows and messing about together on the pavements. [OotP ch. #25; p. 492]

Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages that were now trundling towards them up the drive [GoF ch. #37; p. 629]

We know that Hogsmeade has pavements, which implies the presence of vehicular traffic, at least occasionally. We can also surmise that the Thestral-drawn carriages are parked there when not in use, since there's probably nowhere for them to park at the station (which is described as tiny) and they apparently don't park at the school - we know because they come up the drive to the school to collect students.

We know that wizards do use wheeled vehicles for transporting passengers and probably heavy goods - we see a steam-train, carriages and cars being used. We don't know for sure whether any trains other than the Hogwarts Express use Hogsmeade station; but since it is called Hogsmeade station, not Hogwarts station, it seems likely that there are other trains which bring passengers and goods to the village, and which probably finish their journey by road.

[The Hogwarts Express, incidentally, isn't - it's more like the Hogwarts Snail-Rail. It doesn't get dark in Scotland on 1^st September until nearly 9pm, and the train leaves London at 11a.m. and arrives at Hogwarts just after dark. Even allowing for the fact that the mountains around Hogwarts will cause it to get dark earlier there, the train is still taking something over nine hours to cover a distance which, even if Hogwarts is in Sutherland - the most northerly mountainous area in Scotland - is only about 500 miles as the crow flies. In the heyday of steam, the average speed of an express Muggle steam train was 70-80mph, and the record was 126mph, whereas even if we allow for the track going round a lot of curves, the Hogwarts Express is only averaging around 65mph.]

The lane from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade doesn't sound very well-suited to wheeled traffic. In any case we know, from JKR's own map, that the village and the station are both to the left of the front gates, and the station is further away than the village. It seems unlikely that traffic from the station to Hogsmeade would need to drive past the village, all the way nearly to the front gates, then turn left and go up this twisting lane which seems to be intended for foot traffic. Also, the map shows a road apparently leading out of the end of the village, at the far end from the school gates.

Probably, therefore, somewhere a lot closer to the station there is a fork in the road, of which the right fork continues on round the edge of the school grounds and the left fork veers off towards the village, joining into the High Street.

We can surmise that the station road is a relatively recent addition, put in along with the station some time in the Victorian era. Normally a village would grow up along the local main road, so if the carriage road was old it would be continuous with the High Street. Instead, it skirts the village, so it has to be either a new road, or, if pre-existing, it must have been a narrow lane which was recently widened to carry traffic from the station. If it's a new road then the houses along it are probably also fairly new.

Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish & Banges) at two o'clock on Satruday afternoon. [GoF ch. #27; p. 443]

       They went into Gladrags Wizardwear [cut] Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village.
       Harry had never been in this direction before. The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking towards the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. Then they turned a corner, and saw a stile at the end of the lane. [cut]
       The black dog sniffed Harry's bag eagerly, wagged its tail once, then turned and began to trot away from them across the scrubby patch of ground which rose to meet the rocky foot of the mountain. Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed over the stile and followed. [GoF ch. #27; p. 451]

They wandered towards Dervish and Banges. A large poster had been stuck up in the window [OotP ch. #25; p. 492]

Apart from the lane to Hogwarts, and the putative carriage-track to the station, we know that there is another winding lane which leads out of the village towards the foot of a nearby mountain. This lane winds through wild countryside, thinly scattered with cottages which have larger gardens than those in the village.

As you approach the mountain, the lane turns a corner, and you can then see the end of the lane, where there is a stile, of a kind which involves climbing over a section of barred fence. We know this stile is getting on for a mile and a half walk from Gladrags, because the Trio leave Gladrags at 1:30pm to reach the stile at 2pm. The stile, and perhaps the end of the lane also, is apparently not visible until you turn the corner, so there are hedges or trees or buildings or a fold of ground in the way. Once you cross the stile, you are on scrubby ground which rises towards the mountain.

Since the purpose of a stile is to keep livestock either in or out, and they are approaching it from the lane side, this scrubby land on the far side of the stile either is, or has been at some point in the recent past, a farmer's field used as pasture for livestock. We are not told how they get out of the field on the mountain side. Probably there is a small footpath leading across or around the field, out by a gate or another stile and up the mountain, or to farm buildings on the mountain side of the fields.

Coming from Hogwarts, Harry and Cho seem to come to Dervish & Banges first, and then to the rest of the High Street. So when Harry goes past Dervish & Banges as marking the end of the High Street, and thinks that he has never been in this direction before, he has doubled back towards the school and then bypassed the lane that leads to Hogwarts, and continued through the village instead. This tells us that the lane from Hogwarts probably joins the High Street at an angle, rather than pointing straight down it. So there are two lanes leading away from the Dervish & Banges end of the village - one towards the school, and one towards the mountain.

'Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school.'
'Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you.' [PS ch. #09; p. 114]

[cut] Harry, we'll set it off in the east wing somewhere, draw her right away from her own office [cut]
'What sort of diversion is it?' asked Ron.
'You'll see, little bro',' said Fred, as he and George got up again. 'At least, you will if you trot along to Gregory the Smarmy's corridor round about five o'clock tomorrow.' [OotP ch. #29; p. 580/581]

This map showed a set of passages he had never entered. And many of them seemed to lead –
'Right into Hogsmeade,' said Fred, tracing one of them with his finger. 'There are seven in all. Now, Filch knows about these four –' he pointed them out, '– but we're sure we're the only ones who know about these. Don't bother with the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor. We used it until last winter, but it's caved in – completely blocked. And we don't reckon anyone's ever used this one, because the Whomping Willow's planted right over the entrance. But this one here, this one leads right into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. And as you might've noticed, the entrance is right outside this room, through that one-eyed old crone's hump.' [PoA ch. #10; p. 144]

Harry hurtled round a corner and found Fred and a small knot of students, including Lee Jordan and Hannah Abbott, standing beside another empty plinth, whose statue had concealed a secret passageway. Their wands were drawn and they were listening at the concealed hole. [DH ch. #31; p. 499/500]

They ran behind the counter and through a second doorway, which led to a rickety wooden staircase, which they climbed as fast as they could. The stairs opened on to a sitting room with a threadbare carpet and a small fireplace, above which hung a single large oil painting of a blonde girl who gazed out at the room with a kind of vacant sweetness. [DH ch. #28; p. 449]

Harry clambered up on to the mantelpiece and through the hole behind Ariana’s portrait. There were smooth stone steps on the other side: it looked as though the passageway had been there for years. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as they walked, their shadows rippled, fan-like, across the wall.
‘How long’s this been here?’ Ron asked, as they set off. ‘It isn’t on the Marauder’s Map, is it, Harry? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school?’ [DH ch. #29; p. 460/461]

'Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?'
He knew that the Room would not be able to transform while there were still users inside it. [DH ch. #31; p. 501]

In addition to the lanes and possible road leading into Hogsmeade, there are also several tunnels which lead to the village from the castle or the castle grounds, although only the ones to Honeydukes and to the Shrieking Shack are actually described. When Fred first talks about the tunnels in PoA, it isn't clear whether he means that there are seven tunnels shown on the map, several of which lead to Hogsmeade, or more than seven tunnels on the map, seven of which lead to Hogsmeade.

Ron's comment in DH, however, shows that there are seven tunnels out of the school (at least, as far as Ron knows), so we can assume Fred meant there were seven tunnels on the Map, several of which lead to Hogsmeade. There may also be more tunnels which are not marked on the Map, since we know that at least some features of the castle (the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets) don't appear on it. In addition, during DH a tunnel opens up between the Room of Requirement and an upstairs room at the Hog's Head, but this might not be going entirely through normal space (since it opens in an upstairs room, halfway up the wall above the mantelpiece) and it may not have any physical location - Harry seems to regard it as at least partly an outgrowth of the Room of Requirement itself.

Of the seven tunnels which appear on the Marauder's Map and which are mentioned specifically, the Honeydukes and Shrieking Shack ones are still viable, but the one which starts behind a mirror on the fourth floor caved in in winter 1992/93. The other four are all known to Argus Filch: the points of entry and exit for three of them are not stated at all, but we know that one of the four starts behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy in a corridor in the east wing, although we don't know where this tunnel goes other than outside the school. During the battle of Hogwarts Harry passes a place where there has been a statue on a plinth, guarding a tunnel: this is not the Humpbacked Witch, since he is on the ground floor, and although it's not certain, the route he has followed suggests this is not Gregory the Smarmy either, in which case it must be one of the three undefined tunnels.

We can reasonably surmise that one of the other tunnels into Hogsmeade, the ones Filch knows about, starts from a point outside in the school grounds. How do we know this?

'No one can get in. Fred and George tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut ...' [PoA ch. #14; p. 206]

The Shack is a dead-end. Nobody could get in from outside, and even if there was a way out with a catch which Remus couldn't operate when in were form, you'd think that if the door could be opened from the inside, somebody could open it magically from the outside. Yet not even the Twins could do it: only Tom, who is one of the most powerful wizards known, and even he presumably didn't find out how to get in until DH, otherwise Draco wouldn't have needed to use the Vanishing Cabinet to bring Death Eaters into the school. Ergo, the Shack really was a blind cul-d-sac until Tom worked out how to force it open.

'Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. [cut] I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did ...' [PoA ch. #18; p. 260]

From the Shack, the Marauders would have had to come back into the castle grounds in order to get to anywhere else, yet we know they ran in the village, so they must have got from the grounds to the village somehow. They couldn't have flown there, in beast form, and the wall was probably too high to jump, especially if the ground falls away on the other side (a six foot fence is normally said to be enough to keep a stag in, although one source did say they can jump ten foot). Even at other times, when they snuck out in human form, it would have been difficult to climb or fly out without detection since they probably couldn't all climb or fly out under the Invisibility Cloak at once.

Hence, the need for them to know tunnels into Hogsmeade proper: and we can assume that a stag, a dog, a rat and a werewolf did not come up through the cellar of Honeydukes in the middle of the night. If they are able to carry a wand while in Animagus form then I suppose it's possible that one went on ahead into Honeydukes, switched back to human, opened the door with Alohamora and then changed back to a beast before were-Remus emerged from the tunnel - but then they would have had to enter the school to access that end of the Honeydukes tunnel, and they would have to have done so in beast form or with Remus bound and gagged. It seems much more likely that they had a means of getting into the village which didn't land them on the wrong side of a locked door at either end.

Assuming they couldn't jump out, either they brought a transformed werewolf inside the school building to access one of the indoor tunnels, or they trekked however many miles out through the Forest, or they knew a tunnel from the grounds to Hogsmeade. The third one seems most likely.

There are seven tunnels on the map - the one to the Shack, the one to Honeydukes, the one behind the mirror which had caved in, and four which by Harry's time are known to Filch. The one the beast-form Marauders used to get from the grounds to Hogsmeade must either be the mirror one, if it has a secondary entrance outside, or it's one of the ones known to Filch. Filch doesn't go out into the grounds much because that's Hagrid's domain, but he does go out occasionally - we see him frisking people at the gate - so he might have found an exterior tunnel, or again the tunnel could have a double entrance, one inside the castle, one in the grounds. Or it could start from a position which is neither indoors nor out, such as from inside the bike-shed, which Filch probably does patrol since it's near the entrance to the castle, or in/near the greenhouses.

The tunnel they used to get out was presumably large enough to accommodate a stag, so at least 3½ft wide by 5ft high.

       They covered the distance to the trunk in seconds, but before they had reached the gap in the roots, Crookshanks had slid into it with a flick of his bottle-brush tail. Harry went next; he crawled forwards, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from Harry's wand. Seconds later, Hermione slithered down beside him.
       'Where's Ron?' she whispered in a terrified voice.
       'This way,' said Harry, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks.
       'Where does this tunnel come out?' Hermione asked breathlessly from behind him.
       'I don't know ... It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever got into it. It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it ends up in Hogsmeade ...'
       They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks's tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes ... All Harry could think of was Ron, and what the enormous dog might be doing to him ... he was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch ...
       And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Instead, Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.
       He and Hermione paused, gasping for breath, edging forwards. Both raised their wands to see what lay beyond.
       It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. [PoA ch. #17; p. 247]

As though invisible strings were tied to Snape's wrists, neck and knees, he was pulled into a standing position, head still lolling unpleasantly, like a grotesque puppet. He hung a few inches above the ground, his limp feet dangling. [PoA ch. #19; p. 276]

Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigrew and Ron had to turn sideways to manage it; Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. Harry could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file. Crookshanks was still in the lead. Harry went right after Black, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. [PoA ch. #20; p. 277]

'What – live with you?' he said, accidentally cracking his head on a bit of rock protruding from the ceiling. [PoA ch. #20; p. 277/278]

Sirius turned right around to look at him; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling [PoA ch. #20; p. 278]

       Harry wriggled into the earthy passage hidden in the tree’s roots. It was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged: they had had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously, now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Harry went first, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. They moved in silence, Harry’s gaze fixed upon the swinging beam of the wand held in his fist.
       At last the tunnel began to slope upwards and Harry saw a sliver of light ahead. [cut]
       He groped behind him and she forced the bundle of slippery cloth into his free hand. With difficulty he dragged it over himself [cut] and continued on his hands and knees, [DH ch. #32 523/524]

As quietly as he could, he pulled himself up into the room. [DH ch. #32 528]

The tunnel to the Shrieking Shack is entered through a hole among the roots of the Whomping Willow. When Harry first goes along it in PoA it feels as long as the winding one to Honeydukes (of which more anon), but may well be shorter, since Harry has a great sense of urgency due to his fear for Ron. It is probably earth-floored - it certainly is at the outset - and is so narrow that you can only walk along it in single file. Not only can Lupin, Pettigrew and Ron only pass along it single file but even Harry and Hermione, who are both small, have to go one behind the other. At the same time a very large dog was able to drag a fairly tall boy along it at speed, and Harry was able to see past Sirius to see that Snape's head was bumping against the ceiling, so this confirms that it is probably about 3'6" wide.

Mrs Weasley was marching across the yard, [cut] a short, plump, kind-faced woman [CoS ch. 03; p. 30]

[cut] Harry got up. [cut] He walked across the Hall and opened the door into the chamber. [cut]
'Surprise!' Mrs Weasley said excitedly, as Harry smiled broadly, and walked over to them. 'Thought we'd come and watch you, Harry!' She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. [GoF ch. #31; p. 534/535]

We know that Harry is very small, because Molly Weasley is short, and a year after Harry goes down the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack she is still taller than him, since she has to bend down to kiss him when they are both standing. Even if she's wearing heels, he's pretty short - and that's a year after the tunnel incident, at the end of GoF just before the Third Task. We are told in PoA that the tunnel, at least at the Whomping Willow end, is so low that Harry has to bend almost double to get along it - so you would think that the ceiling-height is only about 4'6".

[cut] Draco greatly resembled his father. His mother was blonde, too; tall and slim [GoF ch. #08; p. 91]

When Snape said nothing, Narcissa [cut] staggered to Snape and seized the front of his robes. Her face close to his [cut]
Snape caught hold of her wrists and removed her clutching hands. Looking down into her tearstained face [HBP ch. #02; p. 39]

[cut] Black was a tall, full-grown man. [PoA ch. #17; p. 249]

'I'll get to the point, then,' said Sirius, standing up. He was rather taller than Snape [OotP ch. #24; p. 459]

On the other hand, when they take Snape back through the tunnel, at the early, Shrieking Shack end his head (which admittedly is probably hanging) only just bumps against the ceiling - it isn't pressed up against it - and it sounds as if he is upright. And Snape is a reasonably tall man. We know that Narcissa is tall for a woman - so probably about 5'8" - and Snape is enough taller than her that he's looking down at her when they are both standing. At the same time he is visibly shorter than Sirius, who is tall, but not so tall as to incite excessive comment. So probably Sirius is about 6'2" and Snape about 5'10" to 6ft. The man he was based on was 5'8", so for snape 5'10" is msot likely, and say 6ft for Sirius.

If Snape is indeed being carried upright at this point, we have Snape's height of a ;little under 6ft, less a couple of inches for his head lolling, plus a couple of inches off the ground and plus the length of his probably rather long feet, which are dangling, albeit presumably at an angle rather than straight down, which would mean the ceiling needed to be at about 6'2". That fits OK with the fact that the tunnel slopes at the Shack end, which means Snape's height is at a diagonal to the tunnel, yet Harry, who is short, bumps his head on a rock protruding from the ceiling. That means either the rock sticks down over a foot - in which case you'd think Harry would have seen it coming, even by wandlight - or the ceiling at that point is only around 5'6". Very possibly the ceiling is just about high enough to take Snape at the centre, and lower at the sides - or perhaps Snape is folded up a bit, even though we aren't told so, but in any case there is no mention of Sirius having to go on hands and knees at this point, even though he may have to crouch a bit..

So at the Shrieking Shack end of the tunnel, and for some distance along it since we are told about Snape's head bumping the ceiling twice, the centre tunnel may be up to 6'2" high, although towards the sides of the tunnel the ceiling slopes down to about 5'6". Presumably when they get to the really low bit they do what they should have done all along, and carry him horizontally, or at least lower him near the floor and let his feet drag.

In DH the Willow end of the tunnel is so low that taller, seventeen-year-old Harry has to crawl, not just crouch, and he is still on hands and knees all the way to the Shack. It's possible there's some way of expanding the tunnel into wizard-space which Remus and Sirius know and Harry doesn't; and it would make sense that there would be, because it seems unlikely that a growing boy (Remus) and possibly Poppy Pomfrey with him would have been expected to crawl or crouch down that tunnel every month for seven years, without anything ever being done to make it more convenient.

If we want a non-magical explanation, though, it may be that there was originally a higher stretch of tunnel in PoA, and by DH it had partially collapsed. Or Harry may simply have chosen to remain on hands and knees right up to the Shack because even though he knew the ceiling got higher at that end, he remembered that he had cracked his head on an unexpected rock, and he was trying to be stealthy. In that case we have a tunnel which is only about 4'6" high at the Willow end, but rises to a little over 6ft for the last hundred yards or so before it reaches the Shack, and we must assume that Remus, Sirius and co. spent the Willow end of their journey crawling on hands and knees.

At the Shrieking Shack end the tunnel rises briefly - as you would expect, since the Shack is on top of a hill. In PoA it rises, then twists just before the entrance to the Shack, and as Harry rounds this twist he sees light. In DH he seems to see light as soon as the tunnel starts to rise. Unless it has mysteriously straightened, we must assume that the light coming from the Shack is much stronger than it was in PoA, and is able to penetrate as far as the twist in the tunnel: this is feasible, since we know Voldemort has a lamp with him. So we can also say that after the tunnel starts to rise it twists, and then comes to a small opening into the ground floor of the Shack. It sounds rather as if this opens through a wall rather than the floor, but the point is unclear, and through the floor makes more sense given thet they ascend to get to the Shack. If it opens through a wall it's either in wizard-space or the Shack is backed against part of the hillside. We do not know whether it is still rising between the twist and the mouth of the tunnel, or level, but the fact that Harry pulls himself up out of the tunnel suggests the latter.

       'Dissendium!' Harry whispered, tapping the stone witch again.
       At once, the statue's hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person. Harry [cut] hoisted himself into the hole headfirst, and pushed himself forwards.
       He slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide, then landed on cold, damp earth. He stood up, looking around. It was pitch dark. He [cut] saw that he was in a very narrow, low, earthy passageway. [cut]
       The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant rabbit than anything else. Harry hurried along it, stumbling now and then on the uneven floor [cut]
       [cut] After what felt like an hour, the passage began to rise. Panting, Harry sped up [cut]
       Ten minutes later, he came to the foot of some worn, stone steps, which rose out of sight above him. [cut] A hundred steps, two hundred steps, he lost count as he climbed, watching his feet ... then, without warning, his head hit something hard.
       It seemed to be a trapdoor. [cut] Very slowly, he pushed the trapdoor open and peered over the edge.
       He was in a cellar [cut] Harry crept slowly towards the wooden staircase that led upstairs. [PoA ch. #10; p. 145/146]

Harry didn't have a very clear idea of how he had managed to get back into the Honeydukes cellar, through the tunnel and into the castle once more. All he knew was that the return trip seemed to take no time at all [PoA ch. #11; p. 157]

Back into Honeydukes, back down the cellar steps, across the stone floor, through the trapdoor – Harry pulled off the Cloak, tucked it under his arm, and ran, flat out, along the passage ... Malfoy would get back first ... how long would it take him to find a teacher? Panting, a sharp pain in his side, Harry didn't slow down until he reached the stone slide. He would have to leave the Cloak where it was, it was too much of a giveaway if Malfoy had tipped off a teacher. He hid it in a shadowy corner, then started to climb, fast as he could, his sweaty hands slipping on the sides of the chute. He reached the inside of the witch's hump, tapped it with his wand, stuck his head through and hoisted himself out; the hump closed, and just as Harry jumped out from behind the statue, he heard quick footsteps approaching. [PoA ch. #14; p. 207/208]

The tunnel to Honeydukes starts by passing through a statue of a one-eyed, hump-backed witch on the third floor of the castle. If the passage passes through her in a normal, physical sense her robes must touch the ground all round, to form a solid block. The statue leads to a chute which passes down, presumably through the wall, until it reaches the earth or rock under the castle.

The chute must be fairly shallow, since Harry is able to climb back up it. At the bottom of the chute there is a "shadowy corner" - probably Harry is using his wand for light, even though we haven't been told this, but if not then there must be a light-source in the tunnel.

The tunnel itself is cut through earth, low-ceilinged and very narrow and with a floor uneven enough to make Harry stumble. It winds back and forth, and though we haven't been specifically told this, the fact that it rises so much at the Honeydukes end means that the initial part of the journey from the castle must angle downwards.

As already discussed, even if the journey-time that felt to Harry like an hour was really only half that, and even if the difficult going slowed him down, given that he was hurrying on that first journey, and did ten minutes at even greater speed on top of hurrying along for what felt like and hour, he must have gone well over a mile. At the same time, the fact that he was able to get back to the castle pretty fast shows that the tunnel isn't over two miles long at the outside, probably between a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half. The actual straight-line distance from the castle to the village will be less than that, since the tunnel winds about so.

We know that the Shrieking Shack is above the level of the Three Broomsticks and above the level of the village, yet the tunnel that reaches it only seems to rise slightly. The tunnel to Honeydukes ascends over two hundred steps just before it reaches the shop, and it had already been rising gently before that. From the point at which the tunnel to Honeydukes starts to rise it takes Harry ten minutes of fairly brisk walking to reach the start of the stair; even allowing for the fact that he is finding his way through an unfamiliar tunnel he must have covered at least six hundred yards in that ten minutes. Even if the floor only rose half an inch per yard - so shallow that it's questionable whether Hary would even register the rise - it would climb 25ft over those six hundred yards.

Then there's the height of the stair itself. Normally, the rise-height of a stair-tread is between 4" and 8"; even if we assume that the individual steps on this stair are an extraordinarily low 2" the stair still has to ascend about 35ft, plus at least 10ft for the depth of the cellar itself, plus the floor climbed at least 25ft before reaching the stair - an overall rise of at least 70ft.

Also, the only reason to have risers that shallow would be if each step was fairly wide. It would be ridiculous to have 2"-high steps 6" apart, rather than 4"-high steps a foot apart, but if the treads are very deep from front to back then it might be more comfortable to go up two inches at every step, rather than one step up four inches, one step along on the level, one step up four inches and so on. In order for the steps to be shallow enough for the height of the ascent not to be ridiculous, then, we have to assume that the front-to-back depth of each tread is at least 12".

Why, if the stair only rises at a rate of two inches per foot, have a stair at all, instead of just a ramp? Presumably there is a risk of the stair becoming slippery.

It's very unlikely that the stair is a spiral one. Spiral stairs have to rise by at least a man's height in each 360° turn so climbers don't bash their heads on the underside of the turn above them: a spiral stair which only rose about 2" at each tread would need nearly forty steps for each turn and would have to be very wide. Even if it only had 6"-deep treads the spiral would need to be about six foot across and it would be ridiculous, since 4" risers a foot apart would be much more comfortable to climb; and if it had 2" risers and foot-deep treads then the spiral would need to be twelve feet across, totally defeating the purpose of spiral stairs, which are used for their compactness.

Unless the stairs are circling blindly around some twelve-foot wide feature Harry isn't aware of, such as a giant well, we must assume that the stair is reasonably straight. In that case, and with over two hundred steps each at least a foot deep, we can say that the stair starts around seventy yards away from Honeydukes.

In order to rise so far, to reach a point which is still lower than the Shrieking Shack, the tunnel must first have plunged down very low - at least 70ft below the level of Honeydukes, plus however much the castle is above Honeydukes - probably about two hundred feet overall. It may be that the tunnel plunges in order to avoid some feature of the landscape - an underground stream, part of the lake, or an impenetrable outcrop of rock, or even the Chamber of Secrets. But we know that instead of just rising again at a moderate rate until it reaches Honeydukes, it rises very shallowly over about half a mile and then starts to rise a lot more steeply about seventy yards out from the shop. That suggests that it has cleared some feature at that point.

One very good possibility is that there is a stream/burn running through the village, passing over the line of the tunnel about seventy yards out from Honeydukes. Such a stream wouldn't have to cross through the village as much as seventy yards from the shop: the tunnel might pass under it seventy yards out and then run alongside it, with the stream passing under the High Street near the shop. There is good evidence that the High Street slopes downwards from the Hogwarts-lane end towards Honeydukes, and some evidence that it levels off at that point: that would make sense if there is a stream running crosswise or diagonally under the High Street just on the Three Broomsticks-side of Honeydukes, with the land on one side of the stream being level and on the other side, climbing.

If there is such a stream it probably does pass under the High Street rather than alongside it. If it ran alongside the High Street it would have to be on the castle side, behind the Hog's Head, the Three Broomsticks etc. This would require it to pass either on the castle side of the Hog's Head (removing the option of the Hog's Head being built against a hillside and Ariana's tunnel being physically real) or under the short street the Hog's Head is at the end of, and around one or other side of the Shrieking Shack's hill and under the Hogwarts lane: two bridges which aren't mentioned in the book, as opposed to one.

Of course, even if it cuts down deep into the landscape, the stream is unlikely to be more than ten feet below street-level and then five feet deep, and the ceiling of the tunnel is nearly 40ft down, but the tunnel-builders might have decided to allow a lot of clearance to reduce the risk of leakage. Even so the tunnel would have to be magically protected to prevent it from flooding, unless there are underground drainage channels right through the mountains and down to sea-level. Passing under a stream might explain why the tunnel might be so slippery as to require very shallow steps instead of a ramp. [Remember, if the steps aren't very shallow then we're left with the tunnel being nearly 100ft underground, which is even worse.]

There is another possibility, which is that this tunnel - rough-floored, earthy, low, very narrow, twisting - is actually the burrow of some great magical animal, or the dried-out bed of an underground stream, and just goes where it goes.

The fact that the tunnel is so long and narrow and winding, and digs so deep underground, raises questions as to how it is ventilated. Either the answer is "by magic", or there are ventilation shafts at fairly frequent intervals.

'No kidding,' muttered Ron, as the passage began to slope upwards. [DH ch. #29; p. 463]

'Yeah,' said Neville, panting a little now, because the passage was climbing so steeply, [DH ch. #29; p. 463]

They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. [DH ch. #29; p. 464]

The tunnel which runs from the Room of Requirement to the Hog's Head in DH may or may not have an actual physical existence in the real world. The fact that it has an earth floor, and that it slopes up to get to the castle, just as the land itself slopes up, may mean that it is a physically real tunnel (perhaps even one of the ones on the map) which the Room of Requirement has diverted, so that its ends connect to places they weren't originally, physically attached to. If so, it may still be attached to its original entrance and exit as well.

Assuming it to be actually real, and not a solidified hallucination which is different every time you encounter it, it has a short flight of steps down from the Hog's Head end and up at the castle end. The ones at the Hog's Head end are smooth stone: we aren't told about the others. There are brass lamps hanging from the walls, at least at the Hogsmeade end, and the passage turns a corner just before the steps up at the castle end.

If the passage is real, how is it connected to an upper floor of the Hog's Head? We are not told whether the flight of steps behind the portrait go up or down. If down, it's just about possible they lead down through the wall of the pub to a basement and connect into a tunnel there, but the description of the steps at the Hogwarts end as "Another short flight of steps" suggests that the steps behind the portrait are not many. In which case, unless the tunnel just crosses through wizard-space, the pub must be built up against the hillside.

Return to contents-list

Orientation & position

They walked between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars and turned left on to the road into the village [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

We know that you turn left out of the Hogwarts front gates to get to Hogsmeade. On JK's map that would make the body of the village probably just east of south of the castle, and on mine just west of south.

They left the castle at noon the next day to find a weak silver sun shining down upon the grounds. [cut]
[cut] Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village.
       Harry had never been in this direction before. The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking towards the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. Then they turned a corner, and saw a stile at the end of the lane. Waiting for them, its front paws on the topmost bar, was a very large, shaggy black dog [cut]
       The black dog [cut] turned and began to trot away from them across the scrubby patch of ground which rose to meet the rocky foot of the mountain. Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed over the stile and followed.
       Sirius led them to the very foot of the mountain, where the ground was covered with boulders and rocks. [cut] They followed Sirius higher, up onto the mountain itself. For nearly half an hour they climbed a steep, winding and stony path [cut] sweating in the sun [cut]
       Then, at last, Sirius slipped out of sight, and when they reached the place where he had vanished, they saw a narrow fissure in the rock. They squeezed into it, and found themselves in a cool, dimly lit cave. Tethered at the end of it, one end of his rope around a large rock, was Buckbeak the Hippogriff. [GoF ch. #27; p. 450-452]

[cut] Sirius was on his feet again, and had started pacing up and down the cave [GoF ch. #27; p. 454]

He walked once up the cave, back again [GoF ch. #27; p. 457]

Buckbeak was ferretting around on the rocky floor, searching for bones he might have overlooked. [GoF ch. #27; p. 462]

'It's half past three,' said Hermione. [GoF ch. #27; p. 463]

He transformed into the great black dog before they left the cave, and they walked back down the mountainside with him, across the boulder-strewn ground, and back to the stile. [GoF ch. #27; p. 463]

One of the Death Eaters waved his wand and the scream stopped, still echoing around the distant mountains. [DH ch. #28; p. 447]

The lane which leads out from the Dervish & Banges end of the High Street runs towards a mountain. Hogsmeade is said to be in the shadow of the mountain, which is close enough for sound to echo off it.

If the comment about Hogsmeade lying in the shadow of the mountain - which is made at about 1:40pm - is literally true at that moment, then the mountain is south and possibly slightly west of the village. We know this because the sun would have been south at noon, and although it would then move to the west, at that time of year it would still be slightly south of due west when it set, so a mountain which cast its shadow soon after noon would have to be pretty-much due south.

As established in the section on the grounds, the Forbidden Forest is more or less west and north-west of the castle (because we see the sun set over it in spring and summer), and it is on the right of the Hogwarts front gates as you head towards the village. Hogsmeade is to the left of the gates, and seen from Hogsmeade the road to Hogwarts and the road to the mountain are at the same - that is, the Dervish & Banges - end of the village. The road to the mountain seems to be broadly in line with the High Street - they pass Dervish & Banges, they don't turn at it. That means that the mountain and the castle are, if not quite in the same direction relative to the long axis of the High Street, at least not in opposite directions. JKR's own map suggests that if the Forest is west and north-west of the castle, then the long axis of the village is probably east/west or south-east/north-west, with the more westerly end being the end you enter by if you're coming from Hogwarts.

All of this means that it would be very difficult to distort the map enough to allow the mountain to be in the south, whilst retaining all these other connections. In any case, the highest mountain in Britain is less than 1,470 yards high, and that's its height above sea level - and we've no reason to think Hogsmeade is as low as sea level. It's very unlikely that the mountain could loom over Hogsmeade to such a degree that it cast it into shadow at half past one in the afternoon, especially when we saw Hogwarts itself in sunlight at noon, so in fact the bit about the village being in the mountain's shadow can't be literal at that point: it must just mean that the village is in the mountain's shadow when it's casting one.

Since it's unlikely the mountain towers over the village high enough to cast it into shadow close to noon, when the sun is in the south, and yet we know that at some point during the day the village is in the mountain's shadow, we can say that the mountain is not in the south. And if it casts a shadow over the village at all, it can't be in the north. That would make the mountain broadly east or west of the village, but examination of the layout of the roads in and out of Hogsmeade strongly indicates that the mountain is west or north-west of the village.

When you come to the end of the lane and cross the stile, you are on scrubby ground which rises towards the foot of the mountain. Closer to the mountain, the ground is rocky and is scattered with loose boulders and rocks.

The Trio cross from the stile to the foot of the mountain and then follow Sirius up a steep, winding and stony path for nearly half an hour. Crossing to the foot of the mountain probably only took them ten minutes or so, because they leave the stile at 2pm, climb to the cave, spend what seems to be an hour or so there and depart again at 3:30pm.

Ordinarily a walk of half an hour would mean just under a mile and a half, but as they are climbing under tiring circumstances, they've probably only gone half that - about 1,300 yards. The path leads them to a narrow fissure, beyond which is a dimly-lit cave large enough to tether a Hippogriff "at one end" (i.e. there's a Hippogriff in the cave, and the cave isn't totally full of Hippogriff), and long enough to make a walk up and down it more than a few paces long. The floor is rocky, and at the far end of the cave there's a free-standing rock, or a projection of the rock wall, suitable to tether an animal to.

Climbing the mountain, they are in sunlight. If the other evidence supported the idea that the village was in shadow at that point, one would have to say they went round the side of the mountain to reach the light - but it doesn't. If the moutain is to the west, and the sun is at this point only slightly west of south, the sun will be on their left as they climb.

We know that the Shrieking Shack stands higher than the village and - as discussed above under layout - that it is probably on the Hogwarts side of the High Street. We know that coming from Hogwarts you come first to Dervish & and Banges, then the Three Broomsticks, then Zonko's. We know that the Three Broomsticks is on the opposite side of the road from Honeydukes and is probably on the Hogwarts side of the High Street; that the Hog's Head, Madam Puddifoot's and possibly Zonko's are all up side streets and that the Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, the Post Office, the turning to the Hog's Head, Scrivenshaft's and the turning to Madam Puddifoot's are arranged in that order and are probably all on the same (Hogwarts) side of the road.

We also know that the side-street up which the Hog's Head is found is so angled that the Hog's Head faces east or slightly north of east, is visible from the High Street and is placed so that as you approach from the High Street you are coming at it more or less from the side.

What can we deduce about the lie of the land - about which points are higher or lower? To begin with, we have to bear in mind that to go "up" a street may mean going up a sloping street or along a level one; to go "down" a street may mean going down a sloping street or along a level one; but it would be very unusual for someone to say they were going "up" a street if it sloped down in that direction, and vice versa.

'It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head - that's the pub down in the village. [PS ch. #16; p. 193]

'She'll be after you next, Hermione,' said Ron, in a low and worried voice as they walked quickly back up the street. [after leaving the Three Broomsticks] [cut]
Breaking into a run, she led them all the way back up the road, through the gates flanked by winged boars, and up through the grounds to Hagrid's cabin. [GoF ch. #24; p. 392]

Once again they drew their cloaks tightly around them [cut] then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street. Harry's thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts [HBP ch. #12; p. 233]

And she pointed into the sky, in the direction of Hogwarts. Dread flooded Harry at the sound of the words ... he turned and looked.
There it was, hanging in the sky above the school: the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue [HBP ch. #27; p. 543]

It seems very well-established that the lane from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade slopes down towards the village, and that Hogsmeade - or at least, the part of it that the students come to first, near Dervish & Banges - is lower down than the front gates of the Hogwarts grounds, which are lower than Hagrid's cabin, which itself is lower than the castle. The village is therefore substantially downhill from the castle.

It's quite clear, from the reference to Hermione running up through the grounds - where one would normally say "across" the grounds - and the way this is coupled with going up the street and up the road, that an actual slope is meant. The fact that the Dark Mark over the Astronomy Tower can be seen from Hogsmeade, above whatever buildings and trees may be in the way, also suggests that Hogwarts is very much up-slope: although of course we do not know how far above the castle the Mark may be.

       When Ron and Hermione had paid for all their sweets, the three of them left Honeydukes for the blizzard outside. [cut]
       [cut] They headed up the street, heads bowed against the wind, Ron and Hermione shouting through their scarves.
       'That's the Post Office –'
       'Zonko's is up there –' [PoA ch. #10; p. 149]

Harry kept his eyes skinned for a sign of Hagrid all the way down the slushy High Street [coming from Hogwarts], and suggested a visit to the Three Broomsticks once he had ascertained that Hagrid was not in any of the shops. [GoF ch. #24; p. 386]

They went into Gladrags Wizardwear [cut] Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village. [GoF ch. #27; p. 451]

They walked down the main street [coming from Hogwarts] past Zonko's Wizarding Joke Shop [cut] past the post office [cut] and turned up a side-street at the top of which stood a small inn. [OotP ch. #16; p. 299]

He and Dumbledore were shivering and dripping in the middle of the dark High Street in Hogsmeade. [cut]
[cut] looking around he saw Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street towards them [HBP ch. #27; p. 541/542]

We established in the section on layout that as you come from Hogwarts the sequence of shops goes Dervish & Banges -> Three Broomsticks -> Zonko's -> Post Office -> Honeydukes -> Madam Puddifoot's, with the position of Gladrags being unspecified but probably up the Dervish & Banges end, and Scrivenshaft's and the turning to the Hog's Head being close together either just before or just after Honeydukes. All references to people going up or down the High Street are compatible with the idea that there is an actual slope downwards from Dervish & Banges to Honeydukes or to the turning to the Hog's Head, whichever is further down the street.

It is not clear whether Zonko's is "up there" in the sense of being further up the High Street, or whether it is up a side-turning (or perhaps an alley leading into a courtyard): if the latter, it may actually slope up, although see below for comments on the Hog's Head, which is probably on the same side of the road and close by Zonko's.

'Oh, there's a really nice place just up here; haven't you ever been to Madam Puddifoot's?' she said brightly, leading him up a side road and into a small teashop [OotP ch. #25; p. 493]

'Women!' he muttered angrily, sloshing down the rain-washed street with his hands in his pockets.' [cut]
He turned right and broke into a splashy run, and within minutes he was turning into the doorway of the Three Broomsticks. [OotP ch. #25; p. 497]

There is also consistent evidence that the side-street on which Madam Puddifoot's is located slopes up from the High Street to the tea shop. Not only do Harry and Cho go up the side-street to reach it, but when Harry comes out he is definitely described as going down the street - and it definitely is this side-street which is being refered to, because Harry then turns right onto the High Street and runs along it.

What we are not told, in any reference that I could find, is whether the High Street continues to slope downwards from the Honeydukes/Hog's Head area towards the turning up to Madam Puddifoot's, or whether it levels off - or even turns upwards. However, the mere fact that we aren't told that it slopes down could be taken as slight evidence that it levels off.

It had been evening the last time Harry had travelled by Knight Bus and its three decks had been full of brass bedsteads. Now, in early morning, it was crammed with an assortment of mismatched chairs [cut]
[Tonks], Harry and Ron proceeded up to the very top deck [OotP ch. #24; p. 463/464]

They were rolling through a snowy Hogsmeade. Harry caught a glimpse of the Hog's Head down its side street [OotP ch. #24; p. 465]

[cut] Harry, Ron and Hermione backed, as quickly as possible, down the nearest side street [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

He, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall, [DH ch. #28; p. 448]

The only ambiguity lies in the position of the Hog's Head. When the Trio first visit the Hog's Head they are said to turn up a side-street, yet when Harry sees it from the Knight Bus he sees it as being down a side-street. However, we know that Harry is on the top floor of a triple-decker bus at the time: and since the inn is said to be at the top of the street, and the turning to the Hog's Head is on the same side of the road as the turnings to the Shrieking Shack and to Madam Puddifoot's, both of which are uphill, that ought to mean that the Hog's Head is slightly higher up than the High Street.

In DH, however, the Trio are twice described as going "down" the side-street to the Hog's Head. Since the side street has been described as both "up" and "down" relative to the High Street one can only conclude that the side-street on which the Hog's Head is situated is in fact level, from the turning to the pub (however long that is). Since other features on that side of the road are elevated above the High Street, the ground must undulate a bit, leaving it open whether Zonko's, which is near the Hog's Head and on the same side of the road, is level or upslope.

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Conclusions and criteria which must be met by any map:

To get from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade you turn left out of the front gates, walk along the station/carriage road a little way and then bear right round a bend towards the village, across open countryside or fields. A moderate distance further on the carriage road bears left to skirt the outskirts of the village, but you continue in a more or less straight line across a T-junction and into a winding lane which later turns a definite corner. It is likely that this lane heads towards the base of the hill the Shrieking Shack stands on and then makes a right-turn at the corner, continuing round in a semi-cricle, first right and then left, to skirt the base of the hill. If so there is access to the hill at or just after the corner: if the lane is hedged on that side this could be a stile, a gate or a side-lane.

The distance from the bend in the carriage road to the corner in the lane is about twice the distance from the front gates to the bend. This lane, and also the part of the carriage road which crosses open land, is edged with hedges on one or both sides. The lane joins into the High Street by rounding a curve rather than a junction or sharp bend, and that curve is visible from the vicinity of the Three Broomsticks.

The distance from the castle to the middle of the High Street is probably something just short of a mile. The village is fairly close to the Hogwarts boundary wall, but at the same time probably far enough out that a walk to the village from Hoqwarts entails crossing open countryside (which could be fields or just moorland: we aren't told).

The split between the carriage road and the lane to the High Street is a moderate distance out from the boundary-wall of Hogwarts - not so long as to take a great deal of time to drive over, but wide enough to cross a stretch of countryside which appears deserted, so probably a few hundred yards. Outlying houses either front or back onto the carriage road where it turns left at this point.

Hogsmeade itself consists of about six-to-eight hundred little cottages and shops, most of the cottages at least being thatched, with the High Street forming a straight central spine probably not more than about 600 yards long, sloping downwards from the Hogwarts end. The main body of the village lies to the left of the Hogwarts front gates, but as you approach the High Street from the Hogwarts end there is a turning which leads sharp right and continues the line of the High Street on into a winding lane which leads west towards the foot of a mountain, which is close enough for sound to echo off it.

At least some of the houses have gardens; as you go out of the village towards the mountain the houses become more thinly scattered and have bigger gardens. It is possible to see some of the residential houses in central Hogsmeade, and their not very big gardens, from the High Street, and there are trees growing within the village and likewise visible from the street, perhaps in the form of a small village green.

The High Street has pavements and at least some streetlamps, although there do not appear to be lamps in the side-street leading to the Hog's Head. There are frequent gaps and alleys between the shops.

There are farms with granaries, or perhaps a distillery or a brewery which uses grain, somewhere near the village, and supporting a population of rats big enough for a large dog to live on without destroying the colony.

As you come into town from Hogwarts, you come first to Dervish & Banges, which is on the far side of the lane which leads to the stile, and a few yards up it. If you turn and walk down the High Street there is a sequence of shops which goes Dervish & Banges -> the Shrieking Shack -> the Three Broomsticks -> Zonko's -> Post Office -> Honeydukes -> Madam Puddifoot's. In addition, Scrivenshaft's and the turning to the Hog's Head are very close together and are between the Post Office and Madam Puddifoot's, but it is not clear whether they come before or after Honeydukes. The location of Gladrags is also undefined, although there is some slight indication that it may be between the Three Broomsticks and Dervish & Banges.

The Shrieking Shack is a private building standing slightly higher than the village on its own little hill, almost certainly on the side of the High Street which is closest to the Hogwarts boundary wall (on the left as you walk down from Hogwarts); but there is a lane which leads to it just on the Hogwarts side of the Three Broomsticks. Madam Puddifoot's and the Hog's Head are both up side-streets; there is a suggestion that Zonko's is also up a side-street, or perhaps in its own little courtyard.

The distance between Dervish & Banges and Scrivenshaft's is long enough to contain quite a lot of shops (enough to qualify as "every shop window [Harry] and Cho passed").

The distance from the Three Broomsticks to the turning to the Hog's Head is about 80 yards.

The distance from the Three Broomsticks to Honeydukes is ambiguous - far enough for it to take a couple of minutes to get from one to the other (in rough weather, when the streets may also be crowded), yet near enough that somebody standing by Honeydukes can clearly see somebody standing outside the Three Broomsticks and think of them as being just ahead.

The distance from the Three Broomsticks to the turning to Madam Puddifoot's is probably about 400 yards. The High Street is straight enough that someone standing by Honeydukes can see all the way down the High Street in the direction of Madam Puddifoot's.

Dervish & Banges is probably on the right as you walk down from Hogwarts, and the Three Broomsticks is probably on the left, which is to say on the side of the High Street which is nearest to the Hogwarts boundary wall: it is definitely on the opposite side of the road from Honeydukes. The turning to Madam Puddifoot's is on the left as you walk down from Hogwarts, and so is the turning to the Hog's Head. It is likely, although not definite, that the Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, the Post Office, the turning to the Hog's Head, Scrivenshaft's and the turning to Madam Puddifoot's are all on the same (Hogwarts) side of the road. The position of Gladrags Wizardwear is undefined but it is probably at a moderate distance from Dervish & Banges.

The Shrieking Shack is a boarded-up two-storey building, built or re-built in the early 1970s, plus an overgrown, fenced garden, which stands on top of its own definitely little hill (quite possibly an old burial mound) with ground sloping down from it all around. It is almost certainly on the Hogwarts side of the High Street, and very probably on the same side as the Three Broomsticks.

There is a path up from the High Street and that path, and the hillside it crosses, are irregular enough to form dips that don't drain properly. There is also a suggestion that the Shrieking Shack is so placed that the ground floor has clear air in front of it on the village side, but earth piled up at its back on the Hogwarts side, so that a tunnel can enter the ground floor through a side-wall rather than through the floor.

The side-street the Hog's Head stands on is narrow, quite short, and straight enough that you can see all the way along it from the High Street. The Hog's Head is on the left at the far end and is placed more or less side-on to anybody coming from the High Street. The front of the Hog's Head (which has bay windows and a hanging sign over the door) faces more or less south-east, and there are no buildings close to it in that direction, unless they are very low.

If you go down the High Street with your back to the Three Broomsticks, pass the turning to Madam Puddifoot's and keep going out past the end of the High Street, the road bends sharply left and then right: this probably leads to a residential area where there is accommodation to let. There is certainly a place - perhaps a village hall or a communal sports ground - which Hogwarts borrows to teach an Apparition class.

In the other direction, past Dervish & Banges and past the turning to Hogwarts, a winding lane takes you out through an area of wild countryside and thinly scattered cottages and/or farms, with bigger gardens than the houses in the village proper have.

As you approach the mountain, the lane turns a corner, and you can then see the end of the lane, where there is a stile. Since the stile is not visible until you turn the corner, there must be hedges or trees or buildings or a fold of ground in the way. Once you cross the stile, you are on scrubby ground which rises towards the mountain.

The mountain is more or less west of the village. The foot of the mountain is rocky and strewn with loose rocks and boulders. A steep, winding, stony path takes you from near the stile up the mountain; it either remains on the east face or tends south, since the path is in sunlight in the early afternoon in early March. After about 1,300 yards, it reaches a narrow fissure, beyond which is a dimly-lit cave large enough to tether a Hippogriff at one end, and not have a cave entirely full of Hippogriff.

In addition to the lanes to Hogwarts and to the mountain, there is probably a wider road for vehicles leading in at the other end of the High Street. Coming from Hogsmeade station, there is probably a fork in the road, of which the right fork continues on round the edge of the school grounds and the left fork veers off towards the village. An outlying are of the village extends to this point.

As well as the roads, there are at least seven tunnels which lead to the village from the castle or the castle grounds. These include a tunnel from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack; a tunnel one end of which comes out through a statue of a one-eyed, hump-backed witch on the third floor of the castle and the other comes up through the floor of the cellar of Honeydukes; one which starts behind a mirror on the fourth floor of the castle, but which caved in in winter 1992/93; and four about which no details are given, other than the fact that Argus Filch knows about them and at least one almost certainly starts outside in the school grounds.

The tunnel to the Shrieking Shack is entered through a hole among the roots of the Whomping Willow. It is probably earth-floored - it certainly is at the outset - and is so narrow that you can only walk along it in single file. At the Whomping Willow end, and for some distance along the tunnel, the ceiling-height is only about 4'6". In PoS it appears that at the Shrieking Shack end, and for some distance along the tunnel, the height must be about 6'4", but in DH it is low all the way along. This may represent some sort of magical transformation, or the tunnel may just have caved in a bit.

The tunnel rises briefly at the Shrieking Shack end and then twists, and then comes to a small opening into the ground floor of the Shack. The opening could be either through a wall or coming up through the floor, although the latter seems more likely.

The tunnel to Honeydukes starts by passing through the statue of the witch on the third floor of the castle. Her hump opens like a door to reveal a narrow but fairly shallow chute which passes down, presumably through the wall, until it reaches the earth or rock under the castle. The chute does not merge seamlessly into the tunnel, as there is a corner near the bottom of the chute.

The Honeydukes tunnel is cut through earth, low-ceilinged and very narrow and with a floor uneven enough to make Harry stumble. It winds back and forth for between a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half (although the straight-line distance from the castle to the village will be less than that), and the initial part of the journey from the castle must angle downwards quite sharply, since it ends up at least 70ft below the street-level of Honeydukes, and its starting point is considerably higher than Honeydukes. The overall drop over the first mile or so of tunnel must be about 200ft - just over 1⅓" per yard.

As you approach Honeydukes, the tunnel floor starts to rise gently, and continues to do so for about six hundred yards. Then come over two hundred steps, before the tunnel exits through a trapdoor in the floor of Honeydukes' cellar. The steps are deep horizontally and shallow vertically, more of a stepped ramp than a stair, with a riser of about 2" every foot or so: they cover about seventy yards horizontally and 35ft vertically.

The fact that the tunnel at its lowest point is at least 70ft lower than the street-level of Honeydukes implies the existence of some sort of ventilation, and possibly the existence of geographical features (e.g. rocky outcrops, underground streams) which the tunnel had to burrow under rather than through. One good possibility is that there is a stream crossing through the village about seventy yards in front of Honeydukes, relative to the angle of approach of the tunnel: the tunnel descends very low to pass under some feature nearer the castle, then rises gently until it has passed under this stream, then climbs much more rapidly.

In DH there is a newly-created, or perhaps newly-diverted-from-elsewhere, tunnel connecting an upper floor of the Hog's Head to the Room of Requirement. It is not clear whether it has any phsyical reality, but it does rise as it approaches the castle, so it may have.

This tunnel has a smooth, well-worn-looking earth floor and is lit by brass lamps hanging from the walls. It is accessed at the Hog's Head end by a flight of smooth stone steps, set behind a door hidden by the portrait of Ariana Dumbledore over the mantelpiece in Aberforth Dumbledore's sitting-room: we are not told whether these steps go up or down. At the castle end the passage climbs with increasing steepness and then turns a corner, where there is another short flight of steps leading to a door into the Room of Requirement: this door matches the one in the Hog's Head.

If the tunnel has actual physical existence, then the Hog's Head is presumably built against the hillside on the side where the sitting-room fireplace is, and the tunnel leads straight into the hill.

Hogsmeade, at least the main body of it, is lower down than the Hogwarts front gates, which themselves are lower than the castle. Walking from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade means walking down a slope.

The High Street slopes down from Dervish & Banges to Honeydukes or to the turning to the Hog's Head, whichever is further. Beyond that we don't really know, but there is slight evidence that it levels off.

The side-street which Madam Puddifoot's is on definitely slopes up markedly from the High Street. If Zonko's is up an alley of some sort, which isn't clear, then it too may slope up from the High Street.

The side-street the Hog's Head is on is level with the High Street - or rather level with its own entrance to the High Street, since the High Street itself slopes.

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Map of Hogsmeade

I have shown the map twice: once in an unlabelled overview version (below) which is displayed at a small enough size that you can see the whole map at a glance, in order to form an impression of the whole area, and then again in a labelled version which is at too high a magnification to fit on the screen, and has to be scrolled through. Because the map files are so large, even as .gifs, that having two of them on the same page may screw up your browser, I have placed the labelled map in a separate window until I think of a better way of doing this.

In regard to this proposed streetplan of Hogsmeade, the position, length and straightness of the High Street is strongly supported by canon. So are the order and positioning of the various shops and pubs and of the Shrieking Shack; the existence and position of the side-roads holding the Hog's Head and Madam Puddifoot's; and the form and position of the various roads and lanes leading in and out of the village. The overall size of the village, the existence of a source of water in the area, the positioning of Zonko's within a courtyard and the existence and position of a village hall, a hangar to store the Thestral-drawn carriages, a whisky distillery and a substantial residential district at the south-east end of the High Street are all weakly supported by canon.

Other details, including the number, position and shape of the various side-streets within the main bulk of the village; the presence of a church and primary school, of a few large buildings amongst the smaller ones and of a small park beside a stream; and the incorporation of groups of farm cottages and of a small settlement of oval "black houses" into the fringes of the village, are just my "for example" suggestions as to what might be there. You can vary them as you please and still stay within canon, so long as the houses and shops in the main part of the village are mostly small and thatched, with smaller gardens than those of the houses along the lane which leads to the stile; there are multiple gaps or alleys between the sides of the shops on the High Street; and there are at least a few trees which are within the village and visible from the High Street.

Smooth, fertile land suitable for farming. Rough scrubland, not suitable for farming. Bushes. Semi-open forest ground and undergrowth. Sparse growth of trees. Dense growth of trees. Bare earth or paving. Water. Buildings. Wooden structures, other than buildings.

::Display labelled map::
with verbal description of what you would encounter as you walked to and through the village, as an aid for fanfic-writers.