Hi, guys! It’s been really long time since I came back from Scotland for my Harry Potter Journey. However, I want to share my experience of how to plan to visit Scotland as a Harry Potter fan.
Thank you for your comments and I hope you enjoy this post 🙂
1. Walk around Edinburgh and feel the wonderful atmosphere
2. Buy souvenirs as much as you want
There are lots of souvenir shops and I visited all of them (maybe I missed some places). If there were enough room in my bag and I had enough money, I would have swept everything in the shops into my bag 🙂
3. Walk on the Victoria Street (a.k.a Diagon Alley)
Rowling lived in Edinburgh throughout she wrote the Harry Potter series. She sought inspiration from Scotland. In fact, there are many places that people said were motivated by Diagon Alley. But, I think Victoria Street is the one because it looks a diagon alley! Can you see the similarity between them? 😀
4. Take a visit to Greyfriars Kirkyard (a.k.a Tom Riddle’s Grave)
Rowling often cite gravestones as a great resource for choosing characters’ names. In terms of the Thomas Riddell gravestone, however, she said she didn’t intentionally use the name from the gravestone in Greyfriars Kirkyard but that it may have been inspired subconsciously.
It’s known that you can find the names of ‘Riddell’ and ‘Mcgonagall’ on the gravestones here, but unfortunately, I only found Riddell.
5. Have a cup of tea and read the Harry Potter series like Rowling at The Elephant House (birthplace of Harry Potter)
In fact, the claim of “Harry Potter’s Birthplace” is not true and she started writing Harry Potter years before she visited this cafe. Rowling said several times that she conceived the idea of Harry Potter on a train ride from Manchester to London in 1990. However, she certainly spent time here when she wrote her follow-up books. Therefore, it’s worth visiting this lovely little cafe.
Unfortunately, I totally forgot to go to the loo there. I wanted to see the messages of Harry Potter fans from various parts of the world scribbled on the wall. It was my fault and but I just enjoyed my time there.
Gee's Footprints 