Scotland is chock full of film locations from Harry Potter, but today we’ll focus on the most famous one: the Hogwarts Express.
In real life, the steam train is called “The Jacobite” and runs as a regular sightseeing experience via West Coast Railways. It was used as the Hogwarts Express in the films, and the train and parts of its train route were shown in all 8 of the Harry Potter films. If you’ve watched the films, you’ll likely remember the scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Ron and Harry steal the Weasley car. This exact scene is where I recognized this filming location most easily, though I’m sure it appears in other films from the series. Even if you’re not a Harry Potter fan, the view is relatively easy to get to and there is a beautiful hike that you can do after the train passes.
Scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – yes, that really is the Jacobite, and the bridge they are crossing is the Glennfinnan Viaduct. If you’re a true Potterhead, you can ride the Jacobite train, which you can read more about here, but today we’ll focus on how to secure a good view of the train so you can take a postcard-worthy photo.
Where is the Harry Potter Train in Scotland?
Glennfinnan Viaduct is what you’ll be searching on the map when driving to the film location. This is actually a curving rail bridge that is over 1,000 feet long, which is the longest concrete bridge in Scotland. The exact location of the train is here.
Important Details
Parking
The most convenient parking will be the parking lot near the Glenfinnan Monument visitor center. It costs £3.50 for all-day parking. Parking gets full quickly, so make sure you arrive at least 30 minutes before the train crossing to give yourself enough time to park and walk up to the viewpoint.
Hot tip: if you’re going to hike past the viewpoint (which I highly recommend doing), it’s better to park at the Glenfinnan Station Museum (the red marker on the map). You can walk from there to the viewpoint and then continue on the Glenfinnan Trail until you reach the museum. The walk-in total is about 45 minutes.
Timing
The train passes the viewpoint twice a day, once at 10:45 am and again at 3:00 pm. You can read more about timing here.
How to Get to the Viewpoint
There is about a 15-minute walk from the parking lot near the Glenfinnan Monument visitor center to the actual viewpoint. We just followed the crowd, but once you exit the parking lot and into the “park” you should go straight and eventually turn left. This will take you up to the viewpoint. As the train only passes by 2x a day, there will almost always be people around to see the train, so if you doubt where the viewpoint is — follow the crowd!
It should be noted that it rains in Scotland, a lot, so it gets muddy. I brought my rain boots and was happy I did, especially since we decided to continue the Glenfinnan Viaduct trail (a 2.5-mile hike) after.
Since we got there early, we had some time to kill as we waited. While you’re mostly there to snag a pic as the train is passing, the views of the surrounding area are just as beautiful.
Glennfinnan Viaduct Trail
After the train passed, everyone started to leave back toward the car park, but we decided to stay back and go the opposite direction towards the Lock Shiel viewpoint. If you keep following the path, you will eventually end up at the Glenfinnan Station Museum. The walk from the viaduct to the Station Museum is only about 20 minutes, but we stopped so much that the walk ended up being more like 30-35 minutes. The trail is surrounded by a lush forest of deciduous trees, primarily oak, birch, and rowan. During autumn, these trees transform into a mesmerizing palette of red, orange, and golden hues. The trail is flanked by these trees, creating a natural tunnel of rich, warm colors.
This hike is incredibly easy — there is a clear trail to follow and aside from the occasional mud, the entire path is pretty flat. If you’re looking for an easy hike to do in Scotland, this is a great option and I really couldn’t recommend hiking the Glenfinnan Trail enough. It was also convenient since we knew we wanted to see the Glenfinnan Viaduct, but we didn’t want to go all that way just to see the train pass for 15 minutes (which is basically what seeing the Harry Potter train is in a nutshell). Being able to take a short, beautiful hike after watching the train made the trip to the viaduct much more worth it! It rained for us, as you can see in the photos, but that made the hike even more enjoyable. Virtually no one was on the path so we had the hike to ourselves.
