Hogwarts: A History by Bathilda Bagshot

Chapter Three: Its Building

The Hogwarts castle is a large, seven-story high building supported by magic, with two hundred and forty-two staircases throughout its many towers and turrets and very deep dungeons. The castle was built in approximately 1020 by a wizard architect and the four most celebrated wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. The castle is the main building of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, regarded as the finest wizarding school in the world.

Hogwarts is built in a valley area — surrounding mountains are part of the landscape — with the fairly large Great Lake to the south of the main building. The huge main oak front doors leading into the Entrance Hall face the west and open up to sloping lawns. The deep Forbidden Forest extends around to the west of the castle. There are also exterior greenhouses and vegetable patches on the school grounds.

Hogwarts is located in the Scottish Highlands, near the all-wizard village of Hogsmeade and not far from Dufftown, in Banffshire, and Achintee, in Lochaber.

The Hogwarts Castle has a great many cool enchantments, however the most obvious are the Great Hall's ceiling (it is charmed to perfectly mirror the sky outside) and the dormitory staircases, which will turn into a slide if the wrong gender attempts to enter.

Due to its extremely advanced age and the sheer amount of magic present due to the Weylines it rests on, the castle is implied to have developed some form of sentience or awareness, such as the various trick steps and false doors.

The castle is supported by magic (unable to be maintained or constructed by any other means), a good example being the moving staircases, a feature contributed by its sentience.

Hogwarts is also protected by numerous ancient spells, such as the Anti-Disapparition Jinx; this can, however, be overridden by the Headmaster when necessary. It is also unplottable and has been bewitched so that, if Muggles approach the castle, all they will see is a ruin with a sign warning them to keep out due to it being unsafe. The protective magic over Hogwarts is not only strong enough to apparently resist the dispelling effects of the Taboo Curse on Lord Voldemort's name but also to repel even the most talented dark wizards.

As a result of all the magic that occurs on-premises (both from learning students, magical artefacts therein, the Weylines, and the enchantments cast over the building itself) a magical atmosphere pervades the entire structure, believed to cause any technology that is not adapted to run off of it to fail. This is presumably why candles and lanterns are still in use. Mechanical things like watches seem to do all right, but it appears Polaroid cameras also work, so this could be negated.

A map of Hogwarts grounds and a floor plan for each floor of the castle should be provided in the acceptance letter. [For more, refer to chapter four] and if it is not so, one may be requested from your Head of House.