West Tower

West Tower
Location information
Location	Hogwarts Castle, Highlands, Scotland, Great Britain
Owner(s)	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Permanent residents	School owls Students' owls Hogwarts Headmasters and Headmistresses
Affiliation	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"He then climbed out of the portrait hole, up through the silent castle (held up only briefly by Peeves, who tried to overturn a large vase on him halfway along the fourth-floor corridor), finally arriving at the Owlery, which was situated at the top of West Tower."

— Narrative

The West Tower, also known as the Owlery Tower, was one of the many towers of larger part of the Hogwarts Castle. It was located thirteen windows to the left of Filius Flitwick's office.

Contents

The tower contained the Owlery, accessible via the fourth-floor corridor, a circular, stone room which was cold and draughty due to the glassless windows. During the winter months, the Owlery became very cold to the point that one had to be careful with ice on the higher landings.

It also contained the Headmaster's office as well as a number of other rooms, such as the Celestial Tapestries room, the Muggle Art & Artefacts Room, and a gallery of Paintings of Famous Familiars. From one corridor, a tight, spiralling staircase led to the battlements at the apex of the tower. The tower was linked to the Hogwarts Turris Magnus by the Pungent Passage.

At the base of the tower was the West Well, which had, by 1993, fallen into disuse. The tower also overlooked at least two courtyards: the West Tower courtyard and the Walled Garden.

History

Since the 1890s or earlier, the Professor of Charms used the cell on the West Tower battlements to hold dangerous beasts in captivity for practising difficult charms.

In 1994, Sirius Black, the innocent and framed Azkaban escapee, was recaptured near the Great Lake and put into captivity in the same cell, until Harry Potter and Hermione Granger freed him from his imprisonment.

Behind the scenes

The remote Owlery building in the film series

• There is some inconsistency about what the West Tower and the Owlery are throughout the Harry Potter books, films, and game series.
  • In the books, the West Tower is a part of the Hogwarts Castle building, described as being thirteen windows to the left of Filius Flitwick's office, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Illustrated Edition shows it as an integral part of the Hogwarts building as well.
  • The Harry Potter films present the tower as a remote building separate from the main castle, and instead of containing the variety of rooms and corridors as shown in the books, the tower only houses the Owlery.
  • The video game adaptations of the Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince films carry on the depiction presented by the films, but the Order of the Phoenix game gives the tower the distinct title of "Owlery Tower". Furthermore, in Hogwarts Legacy (2023), the West Tower and the Owlery Tower are distinct locations, with the Training Grounds tower being named as the West Tower.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (Seen on the Marauder's Map)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Name given to the Dark Tower)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game) (Briefly)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter
• Hogwarts Legacy (Name given to the Training Grounds tower)
• The Art and Making of Hogwarts Legacy