Contact:
The Map of Hogwarts and Surrounding Areas: detailed, labelled map showing the layout of Hogsmeade
(1a) main gates of Hogwarts (1b) boundary wall of Hogwarts grounds (1c) carriage track (1d) footpath to mountain & Grawp's den (1e) lane from castle to Hogsmeade (1f) Shrieking Shack (1g) back path from lane to Shrieking Shack (1h) High Street (1i) path leading from High Street towards mountain (1j) to stile (1 mile) and mountain (1½ miles) (1k) path from High Street to Shrieking Shack (1l) access road from village to station (2a) Dervish & Banges (2b) Gladrags Wizardwear (2c) The Three Broomsticks (2d) Zonko's (2e) Post Office (2f) The Hog's Head (2g) Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop (2h) Honeydukes (2i) Madam Puddifoot's (3a) church (3b) primary school (3c) Firewhisky distillery (3d) village hall (3e) hangar for storing Thestral-drawn carriages (3f) park (4a) watercourse (4b) exit of subterranean overflow from loch As an aid to writing fanfics, here is a description of what you would encounter as you walked from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade. A few minor points are uncertain - it's not absolutely clear whether Honeydukes comes before or after Scrivenshaft's, for example - but everything here is canon-compatible and most of it is hard canon. You walk out of the gates of Hogwarts 1a, passing through the boundary wall 1b onto the carriage track 1c, which bears left around the walls of the school grounds. Somewhere along here there is also a track 1d - possibly just a footpath - heading the other way, towards the right. This footpath goes to the right of a fold in the landscape which obscures it from view, and eventually leads to the mountains. After a few hundred yards of following the main track round to the left it bends right and heads across open ground (could be fields, could just be raw Scotland - we're not told). There is a hedge along at least one side of the track, probably with some trees mixed in with it. The general slope is gently downwards from the castle towards the village. Another few hundred yards on, the carriage track 1c turns left, but you keep going straight ahead across a T-junction and into a narrow lane 1e which may wind about a bit, but overall heads towards the base of the hill the Shrieking Shack 1f stands on. It crosses over a stream which carries run-off from the lake in the castle grounds. A further few hundred yards on, the lane turns fairly sharp right at the base of the hill, and there is access to the mound at this point 1g. If there is a hedge on that side of the road then there is a stile or gate, or a side-lane, to take you through the hedge. Having turned right, the lane describes a big, wavering semi-circle out and back and round to the left again, around the base of the mound. The final curve to the left leaves you looking down Hogsmeade High Street 1h, which slopes away downhill in front of you. On your right, continuing on the line of the High Street and passing you at a sharp angle, is a lane leading off towards the foot of the nearest mountain 1i. If you were to turn sharp right into that lane and walk towards the mountain, the lane would wind about for about a mile and a half 1j and eventually turn a corner and then end at a stile, leading to a scrubby field close to the foot of the mountain. As you walked along this lane, around a quarter of a mile away to your right you would see the dark mass of the edge of the Forbidden Forest. There are scattered houses with large gardens along this lane and I have posited that somewhere along it is a turning to the left which takes you to Hogsmeade kirk 3a (and perhaps a minister's house, a primary school 3b and a few other buildings), as village churches are often slightly outside the village itself. There will be a graveyard either next to or surrounding the kirk. Just at the point at which this other road leads off towards the mountain, and probably a few yards into it, is Dervish & Banges 2a. This is on your left if you are facing the mountain, or on your right if you face down the High Street. If you continue down the High Street, you pass Gladrags 2b on your right, as well as probably a lot of general village shops Harry isn't interested in - grocer's, barber's, animal-feed store (not just Hippogriff chow and owl treats but chicken feed and hay etc. for farm animals and pets), fishmonger's, newsagent and so on. The buildings are mostly two-storey but small and usually thatched. There are alleys or passages between some of the shops - they aren't all terraced together. After a couple of hundred yards you pass on your left a narrow lane which leads away between the buildings and thence up the mound to the Shrieking Shack 1h. Immediately after this lane and also on your left is the Three Broomsticks 2c, which faces onto the High Street and almost certainly has two or more storeys, as Rosmerta evidently lives above the bar. A few doors after the Three Broomsticks, again on your left, is an opening into a courtyard off the main road: this is where Zonko's is 2d. A few doors after Zonko's, still on the left, is the Post Office 2e, and a few doors after that is a turning into a short, level (i.e. not sloping) side street on the left. If you were to turn into this side-street and walk along it, at the end of it you would find yourself approaching the Hog's Head 2f, which would be end-on to you and on the left side of the street. It definitely has at least two storeys, and is visible from the High Street. If the tunnel behind Ariana's portrait has physical reality, and doesn't just pass through wizard space, then the back or far-end wall of the Hog's Head must be built up against a hillside right up to the upper floor. The distance from the Three Broomsticks to the start of the side-road which leads to the Hog's Head is about 80 yards. If you pass the turning and instead continue on down the High Street, immediately after the side-road you pass Scrivenshaft's 2g on your left. The road then crosses a bridge over a stream 4a, which runs parallel to the side-road the Hog's Head is on, and shortly after that, Honeydukes 2h is on your right. I have inserted a small park on your right just before the bridge: there is no canon on this but it's the sort of thing you might expect in a village. Beyond the bridge the slope of the road levels out. There may or may not still be a slight downslope at this point, but if there is then the stream will be cut down quite deeply between its banks - otherwise it would overflow and shift to the lowest point of the slope. Continue on along the High Street for another 300 yards or so and you pass a turning on your left which goes up a slope and leads to Madame Puddifoot's 2i, which is on your left as you go up the side-street. There are probably other side-roads as well which we aren't told about. It is possible to see the gardens of some of the residential houses from the High Street, and also to see trees. The trees may of course be in the gardens, but I favour the idea of a small village green, perhaps with a "market cross", down this end of town. It doesn't have to be anything major: I have portrayed it as just being a triangle of land in the angle of the turning to Madame Puddifoot's. Pass the turning which leads to Madame Puddifoot's, and continue on along the High Street, either on a level or slightly downslope. The High Street eventually turns first left and then right, petering out into a residential area, where there is temporary accommodation to let, probably in the form of guest houses. Somewhere down here is a village hall 3d, community centre and/or sports facility (where they held the Apparition tests), and probably also a garage 3e where the Thestral-drawn carriages are stored when not in use. The main road through the village eventually joins back into the carriage road 1l somewhere around the side of the Hogwarts grounds, giving the village access to the station. There are at least some outlying houses or streets at that end of the village which approach the carriage road closely. Somewhere near the village there must be a water-source: perhaps a spring, perhaps a burn leading off from the Hogwarts loch 4b.
As an aid to writing fanfics, here is a description of what you would encounter as you walked from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade. A few minor points are uncertain - it's not absolutely clear whether Honeydukes comes before or after Scrivenshaft's, for example - but everything here is canon-compatible and most of it is hard canon.
You walk out of the gates of Hogwarts 1a, passing through the boundary wall 1b onto the carriage track 1c, which bears left around the walls of the school grounds. Somewhere along here there is also a track 1d - possibly just a footpath - heading the other way, towards the right. This footpath goes to the right of a fold in the landscape which obscures it from view, and eventually leads to the mountains.
After a few hundred yards of following the main track round to the left it bends right and heads across open ground (could be fields, could just be raw Scotland - we're not told). There is a hedge along at least one side of the track, probably with some trees mixed in with it. The general slope is gently downwards from the castle towards the village.
Another few hundred yards on, the carriage track 1c turns left, but you keep going straight ahead across a T-junction and into a narrow lane 1e which may wind about a bit, but overall heads towards the base of the hill the Shrieking Shack 1f stands on. It crosses over a stream which carries run-off from the lake in the castle grounds. A further few hundred yards on, the lane turns fairly sharp right at the base of the hill, and there is access to the mound at this point 1g. If there is a hedge on that side of the road then there is a stile or gate, or a side-lane, to take you through the hedge. Having turned right, the lane describes a big, wavering semi-circle out and back and round to the left again, around the base of the mound.
The final curve to the left leaves you looking down Hogsmeade High Street 1h, which slopes away downhill in front of you. On your right, continuing on the line of the High Street and passing you at a sharp angle, is a lane leading off towards the foot of the nearest mountain 1i. If you were to turn sharp right into that lane and walk towards the mountain, the lane would wind about for about a mile and a half 1j and eventually turn a corner and then end at a stile, leading to a scrubby field close to the foot of the mountain. As you walked along this lane, around a quarter of a mile away to your right you would see the dark mass of the edge of the Forbidden Forest. There are scattered houses with large gardens along this lane and I have posited that somewhere along it is a turning to the left which takes you to Hogsmeade kirk 3a (and perhaps a minister's house, a primary school 3b and a few other buildings), as village churches are often slightly outside the village itself. There will be a graveyard either next to or surrounding the kirk.
Just at the point at which this other road leads off towards the mountain, and probably a few yards into it, is Dervish & Banges 2a. This is on your left if you are facing the mountain, or on your right if you face down the High Street. If you continue down the High Street, you pass Gladrags 2b on your right, as well as probably a lot of general village shops Harry isn't interested in - grocer's, barber's, animal-feed store (not just Hippogriff chow and owl treats but chicken feed and hay etc. for farm animals and pets), fishmonger's, newsagent and so on. The buildings are mostly two-storey but small and usually thatched. There are alleys or passages between some of the shops - they aren't all terraced together.
After a couple of hundred yards you pass on your left a narrow lane which leads away between the buildings and thence up the mound to the Shrieking Shack 1h. Immediately after this lane and also on your left is the Three Broomsticks 2c, which faces onto the High Street and almost certainly has two or more storeys, as Rosmerta evidently lives above the bar.
A few doors after the Three Broomsticks, again on your left, is an opening into a courtyard off the main road: this is where Zonko's is 2d.
A few doors after Zonko's, still on the left, is the Post Office 2e, and a few doors after that is a turning into a short, level (i.e. not sloping) side street on the left. If you were to turn into this side-street and walk along it, at the end of it you would find yourself approaching the Hog's Head 2f, which would be end-on to you and on the left side of the street. It definitely has at least two storeys, and is visible from the High Street. If the tunnel behind Ariana's portrait has physical reality, and doesn't just pass through wizard space, then the back or far-end wall of the Hog's Head must be built up against a hillside right up to the upper floor.
The distance from the Three Broomsticks to the start of the side-road which leads to the Hog's Head is about 80 yards. If you pass the turning and instead continue on down the High Street, immediately after the side-road you pass Scrivenshaft's 2g on your left. The road then crosses a bridge over a stream 4a, which runs parallel to the side-road the Hog's Head is on, and shortly after that, Honeydukes 2h is on your right. I have inserted a small park on your right just before the bridge: there is no canon on this but it's the sort of thing you might expect in a village. Beyond the bridge the slope of the road levels out. There may or may not still be a slight downslope at this point, but if there is then the stream will be cut down quite deeply between its banks - otherwise it would overflow and shift to the lowest point of the slope.
Continue on along the High Street for another 300 yards or so and you pass a turning on your left which goes up a slope and leads to Madame Puddifoot's 2i, which is on your left as you go up the side-street. There are probably other side-roads as well which we aren't told about. It is possible to see the gardens of some of the residential houses from the High Street, and also to see trees. The trees may of course be in the gardens, but I favour the idea of a small village green, perhaps with a "market cross", down this end of town. It doesn't have to be anything major: I have portrayed it as just being a triangle of land in the angle of the turning to Madame Puddifoot's.
Pass the turning which leads to Madame Puddifoot's, and continue on along the High Street, either on a level or slightly downslope. The High Street eventually turns first left and then right, petering out into a residential area, where there is temporary accommodation to let, probably in the form of guest houses. Somewhere down here is a village hall 3d, community centre and/or sports facility (where they held the Apparition tests), and probably also a garage 3e where the Thestral-drawn carriages are stored when not in use. The main road through the village eventually joins back into the carriage road 1l somewhere around the side of the Hogwarts grounds, giving the village access to the station. There are at least some outlying houses or streets at that end of the village which approach the carriage road closely.
Somewhere near the village there must be a water-source: perhaps a spring, perhaps a burn leading off from the Hogwarts loch 4b.
