Letters left by an old student Map

You walk down the stairs from Hogsmeade Station. Along the path, you come across a gate with a signpost directing you back towards Hogsmeade and the station from whence you came.

Through the gates, the path winds downhill. At the fork, the left path leads towards a little shack beside the Hogwarts lake dock. From here, the sloping cliff-face of the northeastern side of the castle is fully visible.

From this vantage point, you can see the roof of the Great Hall, the huge turrets of the Grand Staircase, the labyrinthine Greenhouse spread-eagle, the shorter peaks of the Library, and the looming peak of the Astronomy Tower behind them. Furthest west are the three consecutive spires of the Bell Tower.

All of this rises above the Black Lake enclosing the castle from below, with the Boathouse sitting on the lake. Occasionally, massive red tentacles burst out of the lake to say hello.

To the west, the Black Lake runs off in rivers through the grounds and towards the forest, while to the east and south, the lake stretches far beyond Hogwarts. To the southwest, mountainous terrain dwarfs the castle and encloses much of the southern side of the grounds. The Owlery sits on its own modest peak in front of the mountains.

The castle walls enclose the northwestern Hogwarts grounds. They run from the walkways above the Boathouse docks towards the Great Hall courtyard, begin again around the multi-tiered, T-shaped Greenhouses, and continue along the grounds to the Quidditch Pitch in the far west.

The right-hand path at the first fork from the station leads uphill towards another fork. The left path leads towards Hogwarts, while the right path winds northeast towards Hogsmeade village.

Taking the left path towards Hogwarts, the route winds around the Black Lake. The entrance to the Forbidden Forest lies off to the right along the way, which extends north and west from Hogwarts.

Eventually, the path passes through gates bordering the outer grounds. Here it forks again. One branch leads towards the Quidditch Pitch, while the other continues through the iron gates of the castle wall. These gates are shut at night.

The path continues through a courtyard with a fountain in the middle and eventually ends at the entrance to the Bell Tower area. This appears to be the main entrance used by older students and teachers.

The Bell Tower Wing stretches along the western side of the castle. The rocky terrain, Owlery and mountain cliffs dominate the south.

Moving east from the Bell Tower area brings you into the central parts of the castle. The Library and Astronomy Tower rise around the central sections, while the Grand Staircase forms the enormous vertical centre of the castle.

The Astronomy Tower and Library areas connect through bridges and corridors to Gryffindor Tower, Ravenclaw tower and the Grand Staircase tower. From these central areas, the castle branches out towards the Great Hall to the east, the Bell Tower to the west, the South Wing, where the Clock Tower is, to the south, and the various towers above.

The Grand Staircase is the main vertical hub of the castle. Numerous staircases, landings, balconies and corridors branch away from it, connecting the different wings at different heights.

As you enter the castle, the main doors of the middle Bell Tower open into a chamber. Two wide staircases zigzag upwards on the left and right. Statues occupy the spaces beneath the staircases, including one representing the three bells associated with three sisters.

Down the centre is a pair of double doors guarded by silver knights. Behind these doors, a staircase descends into the Long Gallery: a sequence of rooms and halls connected by large, doorless arches. The gallery is filled with tapestries, statues, paintings and locked doors.

Sometimes a less-travelled path or a locked corridor leads into this area.

The Long Gallery eventually ends at a small room. From there, a staircase leads to a landing and then into a spiralling staircase. At the top is the small chamber outside the Potions Classroom. It leads into the potions corridor.

That corridor eventually exits into the ground floor of the central hall, near the main entrance from the Transfiguration courtyard. Taking the wide staircase upwards from here opens into a large atrium where students frequently gather during the day.

This atrium is surrounded by several staircases and has another wide staircase descending the opposite side. At the bottom of this wide staircase are double doors leading towards the Greenhouses.

Locked doors into abandoned rooms are tucked into various corners.

To the right of the Greenhouse doors is an open archway leading into a corridor with a cubby containing a statue of an owl. Interacting with the owl twists you into a secret room.

The corridor ends at a door, which puts you into another corridor containing two silver-armoured statues. They behave almost like guards, nudging and poking each other and occasionally whistling.

One side of this corridor is lined with stained-glass windows depicting the Greenhouses. The corridor eventually opens through double-doors back onto the left staircase at the main Bell Tower entrance.

The staircase on the right-hand side of the main Bell Tower entrance chamber leads into a landing of the north tower. There is a door here as well as a continuing staircase.

Following the staircase upwards leads into a dingy attic-like area, which eventually opens into a grand orchestral room. At the conductor's stand sits a choir of frogs, croaking their dulcet pipes.

Behind the benches is another staircase. Following the rickety staircase upwards takes you through numerous levels of the Bell Tower, past the hanging owl-shaped bells.

Eventually, a door opens onto a balcony walkway.

In one corner is a frog statue. Interacting with it causes the frog to swallow you and belch you out onto the balcony of the opposing tower.

The opposing balcony has no obvious way down, so you must return using the frog statue.

Another door towards the back of the music room leads to the top landing of another staircase. There is a locked door here leading to a dead-end corridor, covered in spiderwebs - clearly an old and abandoned hall.

The staircase continues down to another landing containing the History of Magic Classroom and an exit into the Transfiguration Courtyard. Another locked door opens into an abandoned hallway. This leads through two more twisting archways into an area nicknamed the Hieroglyphics Corridor.

The corridor opens into the rear of the History of Magic Classroom and is filled with broken Egyptian statues and locked doors leading into abandoned offices.

Further down the staircase from the History of Magic corridor is another landing. The door on this landing leads back towards the right-hand staircase at the entrance of the Bell Tower. Going down, you eventually reach the bottom of the staircase, where a door opens into the Dungeons.

Following the winding stairs and corridors down into the Dungeons takes you past statues, columns and paintings. A statue of a sleeping dragon marks part of the route. Beyond it is a corridor containing a door to the Muggle Studies Classroom.

The corridor eventually ends at an archway opening into a dusty chamber filled with barrels stacked from floor to ceiling in every inch of wall. Jail cells are built into the room as well, although they are locked. A frog statue in the corner of each jail cell provide a strange means of travelling wherein they shuttle you back and forth between them.

Within the barrel room, a staircase leads upwards to a landing. The landing contains a jail door opening onto a spiralling staircase that descends to a dead end.

Returning to the large atrium of Central Hall, two doorways line one wall. These lead to narrow staircases ending in doors that open into the Hogwarts Library.

The library occupies multiple levels. The main room contains large central bookcases and study areas, while the upper level is lined with quieter study nooks. From the Library, the Restricted Section descends underground through a much darker series of staircases, rooms and passages. The Restricted Section eventually descends into the deepest parts of the library’s underground area, where the architecture becomes much older and more dungeon-like.

The staircases around the central hall atrium lead up to landings for the students to look down from. The widest staircase opens into a longer landing strip. This is the main staircase up.

It continues to lead up to another wide landing under the same staircase, which splits off on both sides to conjoin at another wide landing. It continues to head up, broken up by landings, one of which has double doors opening into a bridge to the Defence Tower, which is attached to the wider Astronomy Tower.

Heading back to the central hall staircase, the top opens into a landing with a pair of double doors at the centre. This opens into the top of the winding castle wall, with twisting staircases leading up to the Great Hall building and down to the Boathouse.

Returning to the top landing of the central hall staircase, five spiralling staircases flank the sides, appearing as two. The other two are behind the other on each side. The fifth staircase on the far left leads up to a door. This opens into a bridge leading to the Slytherin dungeons.

The front staircases on either side lead into the same balcony corridor, at the back of which is a series of little rooms connected by archways and ending in a small circular room.

The staircases behind continue to spiral upwards on each side.

The one the right opens into a canopied bridge leading to Ravenclaw Tower. A landing midway through the spiralling staircase of Ravenclaw tower leads into an open corridor into the Grand Staircase.

The staircase on the left spirals up past a long balcony along the roof beams and ends at the Divination Classroom.

Following the bridge into the Defence Tower, you look down onto the Transfiguration Courtyard. It opens through some double doors into a large hallway landing.

To the right is an archway, opening into the landing of another spiralling staircase. Heading up, it leads you to the Magical Theory Classroom, and upper landings lead to the Charms Classroom and study areas until you reach the Astronomy Classroom, and observation deck further up.

Heading down this spiralling staircase leads you to a series of landings stretching like corridors throughout the main atrium of the Defence Tower, until you reach the double doors in the bottom into the Transfiguration Courtyard.

Most staircases in this atrium lead down here, like the staircase to the right of the arched corridor. Many doorways litter the landings of this network of staircases.

One opulent landing up the main staircase features self-playing violins, and there are many seating areas in nooks throughout.

On the second floor of these landings is the Defence Classroom. By the corner staircase on the same landing is doubled doors into a passageway leading to the west tower. This opens into a balcony with a winding staircase down into the grounds.

On the same landing in the Defence tower where the door from the central hall to the Defence tower is, another set of doors nearby takes you to a bridge leading to the Gryffindor Tower.

Right from the entrance to Gryffindor Tower is a doorway leading up a set of stairs, on the landing of which is a bridge to the Clock Tower and Clock Tower Courtyard, where student duels occur. A locked door in here leads you on a journey up several flights of staircases through hidden alcoves, which spit you out into a room of large gears.

Further up the set of stairs from the right of the Gryffindor tower bridge entrance is a spiralling staircase taking you to the faculty tower, where the entrances to the Hospital Wing and Prefects Bathrooms reside. The spiralling staircase leading you up here also hides a statue of a frog at it's base, which spits you into a storeroom.

At the top of the staircase is the corridor with the portrait of a flamboyant lady in a pink silk dress. She sits on a vivid green field under a fluffy bright sky, and a white mansion rises from the distance. It can be correctly assumed that the Gryffindor rooms lie beyond here, as they are not subtle about their 'Fat Lady' in the slightest.

The faculty tower corridor takes you to a landing on the Grand Staircase. In this corridor is a statue of a one eyed witch. Whispering 'dissendium' at the statue opens a tunnel that takes you all the way to Honeydukes.

At the bottom of the Grand Staircase is another entrance to the Slytherin Dungeons, which splits into a staircase on the left and a corridor on the right.

The left staircase leads to the bridge to central hall.

The corridor to the right leads to a spiralling staircase up to the Entrance Hall in the Great Hall building. The Slytherin rooms lie in these corridors, as it is populated by droves of them, but all I find is endless dank and gloomy stone twisting me about.

The corridor with a painting of a fruit bowl and stacked barrels lies behind an alcove in the grand staircase, accross from the open wall in the reception hall with the hourglasses. I have observed many a Hufflepuff streaming in and out of here, so presumably their rooms are somewhere around here.

If you tickle the pear on the painting, it swings open. The kitchens lie beyond. They are large and foggy, featuring industrial-sized cauldrons, countless rows of counters, tables of chopped foodstock and hanging ingredients. At the back sit towers of piled cutlery. A back wall of side-stacked barrels have doors built into them for the elves. I must assume the space is extended in the barrels, or else it would be quite a sorry state to live in.