ogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, commonly shortened to Hogwarts (/'h?gw??

rts/), is a fictional British school of magic for students aged eleven to eighteen,
and is the primary setting for the first six books in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter
series.[3][4]

Rowling has suggested that she may have inadvertently taken the name from the
hogwort plant (Croton capitatus), which she had seen at Kew Gardens some time
before writing the series,[5][6] although the names "The Hogwarts" and "Hoggwart"
appear in the 1954 Nigel Molesworth book How To Be Topp by Geoffrey Willans.[7][8]

Hogwarts school was voted as the 36th best Scottish educational establishment in a
2008 online ranking, outranking Edinburgh's Loretto School. According to a director
of the Independent Schools Network Rankings, it was added to the schools listing
"for fun" and was then voted on.[9]A huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle,
with a jumble of towers and battlements. Like the Weasleys' house, it isn't a
building that Muggles could build, because it is supported by magic.

In the novels, Hogwarts is somewhere in Scotland[10][11] (the film Prisoner of

Azkaban says that Dufftown is near.) The school is depicted as having numerous
charms and spells on and around it that make it impossible for a Muggle to locate
it. Muggles cannot see the school; rather, they see only ruins and several warnings
of danger.[GF Ch.11] The castle's setting is described as having extensive grounds
with sloping lawns, flowerbeds and vegetable patches, a loch (called The Black
Lake), a large dense forest (called the Forbidden Forest), several greenhouses and
other outbuildings, and a full-size Quidditch pitch. There is also an owlery, which
houses all the owls owned by the school and those owned by students. Some rooms in
the school tend to "move around", and so do the stairs in the grand staircase.[12]
Witches and wizards cannot Apparate or Disapparate in Hogwarts grounds, except when
the Headmaster lifts the enchantment, whether only in certain areas or for the
entire campus, so as to make the school less vulnerable when it serves the
headmaster to allow Apparition.[GF Ch.28] Electricity and electronic devices are
not found at Hogwarts. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione indicates
that due to the high levels of magic, "substitutes for magic (that) Muggles use"
such as computers, radar and electricity "go haywire" around Hogwarts. Radios
however, make an exception. Rowling explains this by saying that the radios are not
powered by electricity but by magic.

Hogwarts is on the shore of a lake, sometimes called the Black Lake. In that lake
are merpeople, Grindylows, and a giant squid. The giant squid does not attack
humans and sometimes acts as a lifeguard when students are in the lake.

Hogwarts is a coeducational, secondary boarding school, taking children from ages

eleven to eighteen.[4] Education at Hogwarts is not compulsory, with some students
being home schooled as stated in the seventh book. Rowling initially said there are
about one thousand students at Hogwarts.[13] She later suggested around six
hundred, while acknowledging that this number was still inconsistent with the small
number of people in Harry's year. She further explained that this had resulted from
her creating only 40 characters for Harry's year.[14]

Rowling has said that Hogwarts is "a multifaith school".[15] She has further stated
on the subject, "The only people I never imagined there are Wiccans."[16] In
response to the query, "[D]o you think there are a lot of LGBT students in modern
age Hogwarts? I like to imagine they formed an LGBT club," Rowling replied, "But of