076 VIRGIN AUSTRALIAMAY 2017
tastes like shortbread and butterscotch —
and butterbeer ice-cream. A tip: to avoid
disappointment, book your studio tour
at least a month in advance.Edinburgh
Fanning out from its majestic hilltop
castle, the Scottish capital has been billed
as ‘The Birthplace of Harry Potter’, as JK
Rowling wrote the bulk of the stories
after moving here in the 1990s. There’s
a distinctly Hogwartsian feel to this
UNESCO City of Literature, particularly
in the Old Town, with its medieval
turrets, sloping cobbled closes and
secluded wynds (alleys) and staircases.
Led by robed guides, the Potter
Trail takes in locations that inspired the
Harry Potter characters and plots, plus
some of the author’s original hangouts.
Then a single mother and trainee teacher,
Rowling would sometimes write, with
her baby daughter Jessica beside her, in
cosy cafes such as Nicolson’s (now called
Spoon) and The Elephant House.Looming behind Elephant is the atmospheric Greyfriars
Kirkyard, where you’ll find the tombstone of Thomas Riddell
Esquire, a gentleman who died in 1806. Tom Riddle, of course,
was the birth name of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Harry’s
nose-less nemesis, Lord Voldemort). Another grave, that of
19th-century poet William McGonagall, is believed to have
supplied the name of Hogwarts’ Professor McGonagall, while
the ‘house system’ of George Heriot’s School, opposite the
graveyard, is said to be the template for Hogwarts’ Ravenclaw,
Slytherin, Gryindor and Huepuf houses.
Edinburgh’s most ostentatious Potter spot is the five-star
Balmoral Hotel. Rowling completed the series here and her
room, now the JK Rowling Suite, has been kept more or less
as she left it, complete with the marble bust on which she
scribbled, with black marker pen, “JK Rowling finished writing
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11th Jan
2007.” Nowadays, the author lives in a 17th-century mansion
in Edinburgh’s leafy north-west with her second husband Neil
and their two children, David and Mackenzie.Scottish Highlands
Although it’s never explicitly stated in the novels, JK Rowling
admits she always envisaged Hogwarts to be located by a loch
(lake) in Scotland. The sweeping views of the school seen in
the movies were captured using a model created by WarnerCLOCKWISE,
FROM TOP LEFT
The Platform 9¾
sign at King’s Cross
provides countless
photo opportunities;
Glenfinnan Viaduct
in the Scottish
Highlands; fans on
the Harry Potter
Trail; JK Rowling
penned parts of
the early Harry
Potter books at The
Elephant House.
OPPOSITE PAGE,
FROM TOP The
Balmoral Hotel
where Rowling
finished writing the
seven-book series;
memorabilia at the
House of MinaLima.