Edinburgh inspired J.K. Rowling while she wrote much of the Harry Potter series.
Rowling moved to Edinburgh in 1993 and wrote portions of the books there, including in cafés and at home. The Scottish capital later became closely associated with her writing career and with Harry Potter tourism.
Edinburgh is not the fictional location of Hogwarts. In the novels, Hogwarts is a magical school in Scotland, but its exact geographic position is deliberately difficult for non-magical people to identify. Edinburgh’s real streets, architecture, and literary history helped shape the atmosphere associated with Rowling’s work, but the story is not a direct map of the city.
Rowling began writing the first Harry Potter novel before moving to Edinburgh. Her earlier ideas were developed during the period after a train journey from Manchester to London in 1990.