Harry Potter train Fort William Scotland

I recall once I was initially introduced to Harry Potter. I became about 13 yrs old, in skip Barkett’s 7th-grade English course, and we also have been told through our (uber conservative, outlying) college board that people could not read the very first Harry Potter book as a course as it “condoned witchcraft.” (indeed, obviously we went along to school into the 1600s.)

When another Scholastic guide order kind came around (remember those?), nearly everyone into the course bought the book anyway. Forbidden can be so cool whenever you’re 13, most likely.

From the devouring that book. Hours spent sprawled from the green carpet of my youth bed room, getting swept away to Hogwarts along side Harry.

While I was a little over the age of the Boy which Lived (well, during very first reading, at least), I privately hoped that an owl would swoop into my garden and provide my Hogwarts letter. (However waiting – I’m persuaded it got lost inside owl post.)

For me, Harry Potter had been a large section of my teenage many years. I pretty much was raised with Harry, likely to reserve release events and midnight motion picture showings throughout highschool. Once I finished reading the seventh book, there clearly was actually a void in my own life – I went through some really serious post-series depression.

It’s most likely no wonder, after that, that, even close to 30, We however latch to every possibility to get my Harry Potter fix.

Now I can also say that I’ve ridden the Hogwarts Express.

Really, sort of.

In Scottish Highlands, there’s a popular vapor train labeled as the . The scarlet locomotive moves from Fort William to Mallaig on the West Highland Railway Line, carrying tourists through one of the prettiest parts of the Highlands from May to October annually.

This train in addition “starred” as Hogwarts Express in some regarding the Harry Potter flicks – essentially any moments in which you saw the train trundling over the tracks.

We boarded in Mallaig, just a little city on shore simply over the liquid from Armadale in the Isle of Skye. A single day was hot and bright – so much so that it really got hot in the train and necessitated us starting the house windows. This meant that components of soot from the huge steam-engine had been constantly dropping into our tresses as well as on our tables – but I truly performedn’t attention.

I spent the initial half an hour of trip during my chair, watching the scenery pass-by. But then i acquired antsy, and finished up investing the following hour standing near an open window on a single of the doors behind a carriage.

Out of this vantage point, I had a perfect view of lochs and mountains and streams that people passed – landscape that wins this train trip all sorts of awards.

So when the wind-whipped through my tresses even as we passed across iconic Glenfinnan Viaduct, I happened to be transported back into seventh class; I became 13 again, giddy throughout the dream of going to Hogwarts.

As I went back to my chair a bit later, face wind-burnt and tresses soot-filled, I really anticipated a plump small witch in the future by to inquire about easily wanted something off the candies trolley.

IF YOU GO

Whenever: The Jacobite operates from might to October every year (specific dates differ). In 2015, the train made two trips daily.

Where: The Jacobite journeys between Fort William and Mallaig in Scotland. You can easily ride round-trip, or simply take the train one-way (which can be the things I did).

How much: a grown-up return ticket is £58.00 in high grade and £34.00 in standard class (top class gets you a Harry Potter-esque storage space; standard class gets you a chair at a table). One-way seats tend to be £53.00 in very first and £29.00 in standard.

Just how long: The trip one-way persists about a couple of hours.

The best place to stay: if you'd like a views of this viaduct and some associated with the ponds, you’ll need take a seat on the left side of the train whenever traveling from Fort William to Mallaig, or the right-side for the train if taking a trip from Mallaig to Fort William.