Hogwarts Castle was a large, seven-storey high building supported by magic,[5] with a hundred and forty-two staircases[6] throughout its many towers and turrets and very deep dungeons.
The castle was built in the late Early Middle Ages (c. 993) by a wizard architect and the four most celebrated wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.[7] The castle was the main building of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, regarded as the finest wizarding school in the world.[8]
Hogwarts was built in a valley area — surrounding mountains were part of the landscape — with the fairly large Great Lake to the south of the main building. The huge main oak front doors that led into the Entrance Hall faced west, and opened up to sloping lawns.[2] The deep Forbidden Forest extended around to the west of the castle.
There were also exterior greenhouses and vegetable patches on the school grounds.[10][11]
Hogwarts was located in the Scottish Highlands, near the all-wizard village of Hogsmeade and “not far” from Dufftown,[12] in Moray, and Achintee, in Lochaber.
It was the setting of the final battle of the Second Wizarding War, the Battle of Hogwarts,[13] which resulted in the deaths of several witches and wizards who fought in defence of the castle, including Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, Lavender Brown, and Severus Snape.
The castle was badly damaged in the battle, but ultimately the Order of the Phoenix won when Harry Potter defeated his nemesis, Lord Voldemort, in the Great Hall.
Due to its extremely advanced age and the sheer amount of magic present in or around it, the castle was implied to have developed some form of sentience or awareness, such as when it sealed the Headmaster’s Tower against Dolores Umbridge in 1996, and the various trick steps and false doors.
Hogwarts Castle was also the most haunted location in Great Britain, being home to many ghosts.[4]