Photo Story: The REAL Hogwarts

This is George Heriot’s School. It is widely known as the school that inspired the school Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. Why is that, well because J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books in Edinburgh nearby to this school.

Doesn’t it look like a castle? Here's a close up:

The school itself was founded in 1628 by George Heriot who left £25,000 in his will for this school to be founded. £25,000 in those days is equivalent to several tens of Millions today. So not a paltry sum. The school opened in 1659 and is even now one of the best schools in the city. Send your kid there and you will ensure they get the education they need to attend a top University (oxford, cambridge etc) AND you ensure your own bankruptcy. I kid, but it is very expensive.

^{A side shot of the School from in Greyfriars Cemetery}

You can kind of see why it inspired Hogwarts can’t you. The school is also right next to Greyfriars Cemetery, which also provided some inspiration for J.K. Rowling’s character names. She got Potter, Cruickshanks, Mcgnagall and a few others from the headstones and memorials in there, including Riddle. 10 years ago a friend and I heard this and decided to look for Riddle.. well long and drunken story short, we found it. Word got round and now everyday (one of my jobs is in greyfriars cemetery) we get asked by tourists where it is. Here’s a photo:

^{Thomas Riddle}

Anyway, Rowling wasn’t the only author to find inspiration in the cemetery. There is another headstone that has “Ebenezer Scroge, Meal Man” carved on it. It is said Charles Dickens misread the headstone and thought it said “Ebenezer Scroge, Mean Man” and so came up with the character Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

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