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How big is Hogwarts in Harry Potter? Or how much do we know about that from the books? The information for this seems to be quite scattered, so I wondered how much one can find out.

I am mainly asking about the building, i.e. how tall it is, how many rooms there are, just generally how large the building is; but if someone feels like elaborating it would also be nice to know how large the associated lands are (Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest etc.).

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    Internet wild mad guessing; members.madasafish.com/~cj_whitehound/Fanfic/map_of_Hogwarts/…
    – Valorum
    Mar 28, 2016 at 0:10
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    According to Alice Finch, Hogwarts is this big: s.yimg.com/fz/api/res/1.2/8E7VpJh_1LTzGdmFV_NBCA--/…
    – Major Stackings
    Mar 28, 2016 at 0:55
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    From a purely in-universe perspective, I'm guessing nobody knows. The Marauders seemed to have covered all bases, but they didn't seem to know about the Room of Requirement, or were unable to plot it onto their map, even if it was known to them. Another example is the Chamber of Secrets. So who knows how many other rooms/chambers/halls there might be hidden within the castle that haven't been discovered for decades or maybe even centuries. Personally, I believe there is so much magic instilled into the castle that it can be considered a sentient being by itself.
    – ʀᴇᴅ_ᴅᴇᴠɪʟ226
    Mar 28, 2016 at 7:55
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    It's too big if you ask me. The number of students seems it should be around 300 (based on ten in Harry's house in Harry's year) and JKR said she thought about 1000. It seems to have one teacher per subject so around 15 classrooms required. I love Hogwarts but I think how big? Too big really!
    – ThruGog
    Mar 28, 2016 at 18:52
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    @ThruGog There are also the teachers' offices, of which we see a few. Most of the castle, however, would appear to be either unused (like the old classroom where the Mirror of Erised was in Harry's first year or the third-floor corridor where Fluffy and the Stone were temporarily put) or just not appear in the books—teachers' living quarters, large empty corridors, function rooms (isn't Slughorn's party in some otherwise unknown room?), etc. It certainly can't be a very optimised use of space, that's for sure!
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Mar 30, 2016 at 2:01

3 Answers 3

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While a detailed description of every aspect of the size of Hogwarts is probably out of the scope of SFF, (See Richard's comment for one such theory, if you're interested.) I could try to list a few pointers.

Height (eight storeys plus the towers)
The highest floor ever mentioned is the seventh. (Although I can't find any clear quote that this is the highest.) Note that the ground floor isn't included, making there eight floors total. Extending past that are the towers with the three highest being Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor.

Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers—Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor—where they’ll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells.
(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Chapter 31 - text available on Pottermore)

The highest tower is the Astronomy tower

The Dark Mark was glittering directly above the Astronomy Tower, the highest of the castle.
(Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Chapter 27)

Staircases (142)

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.
(Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Chapter 8)


Rooms (A lot?)

I don't know of any source for the number of rooms in Hogwarts. As ThruGrog points out, Hogwarts really doesn't need more than fifteen classrooms, and there seems to be little need for an eight-story castle, but that is how it is.

HP-Lexicon has the following list of rooms in Hogwart mentioned in canon:

antechamber of the Great Hall, Armour Gallery, Astronomy Tower, Boys’ bathroom, Broom cupboard, Chamber of Secrets, Chambers of the Philosopher’s Stone, Charms classroom, Charms corridor, Classroom Eleven, Courtyard, Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher’s office, Disused classroom on the third floor, Dungeons, Entrance Hall, fifth floor corridor of the east wing, Filch’s office, Flitwick’s office, Girls’ bathroom, Great Hall, Gryffindor Tower, Head’s office, History of Magic classroom, Hogwarts corridors, Hogwarts grounds, Hogwarts kitchens, Hospital Wing, Hufflepuff common room, Library, Lockhart’s Office, Madam Hooch’s office, McGonagall’s office, McGonagall’s study, Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, North Tower, Prefect’s bathroom, Quidditch locker room, Ravenclaw Tower, Room of Requirement, Seventh floor corridor, Slughorn’s office, Staff room, Third floor corridor, Transfiguration classroom, Trophy room, Unused 4th floor classroom storage for the Mirror of Erised, West Tower

Associated lands
JK Rowling drew a sketch of Hogwarts and grounds for the movie production which was shown in an extra for The Prisoner of Azkaban DVD (and later included in two behind-the-scenes film books). enter image description here

More recently, a sketch that Rowling made for Bloomsbury has come to light which offers a different view. (Exhibited in Harry Potter: A History of Magic and tie-in books.) enter image description here

Note that some recent editions of the Harry Potter books include a map based on Rowling's sketches. enter image description here

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  • Something you may be missing is the professors' quarters. They may sleep in their offices, but I can't seem to remember exactly what is said, particularly in Marauder's Map bits.
    – BlackThorn
    Apr 4, 2018 at 16:51
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    @BlackThorn They sleep in (or just off from) their offices. "Minerva could not bear to remain alone in their cottage, but packed her things after Elphinstone’s funeral and returned to her sparse stone-floored bedroom in Hogwarts Castle, accessible through a concealed door in the wall of her first-floor study." Pottermore.
    – The Dark Lord
    Apr 5, 2018 at 10:40
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Here is a rough estimate to sheer size, based on the films at least.

The scale model of Hogwarts at the Studio Tour is built to a 1:24 scale. http://origin.wbstudiotour.co.uk/en/tour/hogwarts-castle-model

It is said to be 50 feet across - meaning right across from one side to the other, so that encompasses a lot of land around the castle but not the Forbidden Forest or Lake. The model includes the Owlery, the boat house and the wooden bridge but not Hagrid's hut or the Quidditch pitches as these would be further out.

If we take 50 feet to be about 15 metres then the area taken up by the main body of the castle itself should be about 360 metres across.

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  • I believe the OP was asking for book canon, not movie canon.
    – ibid
    Mar 30, 2016 at 11:46
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    Yes, yours is the better answer, I just wondered if this bit of mental maths added to the overall picture :-) I do think movie Hogwarts is pretty accurate though.
    – ThruGog
    Mar 30, 2016 at 11:56
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    I never liked movie Hogwarts what with it's clock tower, and covered bridge, and all the non-canon features. Though I guess it's probably a good estimate for overall size.
    – ibid
    Mar 30, 2016 at 11:58
  • @ibid I'm not a fan of the castle proper; that giant round tower in the middle looks very out of place, and Dumbledore's study is simply ridiculous. I'd have much preferred a simpler main building with the 8 floors, with all of the towers coming off it. I do like a few scattered buildings though - the clock tower section and the great hall are nice, as are the various courtyards and viaducts. The idea of an outdoor owlery makes a lot of sense, and I do like the rickety bridge leading to Hagrid's.
    – Cooper
    Oct 24, 2016 at 10:37
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In Britain the Ground floor and First floor are two different floors:

In British English the floor of a building at street level is called the ground floor. The floor above it is the first floor and the floor below is called the basement.

In American English, however, the floor at street level is usually called the first floor. Go up one floor and you are on the second floor (which, of course, is the first floor for the British). The floor below street level is called the basement, the same as in British English.

Therefore, there are 8 floors above ground level. Below ground level, there is at least 1 basement floor and 1 dungeon floor. So in total, 10 floors to Hogwarts.

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  • The crux of your answer seems to be about the number of floors but where do you get the evidence from that there are that number of floors in the first place? Could you edit your answer to include that?
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jul 26, 2019 at 14:47

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