January 7, 2025, 6:41 am | Read time: 6 minutes
The Glenfinnan Viaduct is one of the highlights of our author Anna Wengel’s (now Chiodo) Scotland road trip in August 2024. Read this travel report to find out why she found it so exciting and what the railroad bridge in the Highlands has to do with “Harry Potter”.
I envisioned a colossal railroad bridge, a solitary giant standing rigid and impressive amidst the rolling hills of the Highlands. At best, of course, with a car flying over it, carrying two teenage wizards and a snowy owl. Yet I was open to variations. Arriving in Glenfinnan, in the west of Scotland, the picture in my head straightens out, and I ask myself why, after the crowds of tourists that surprised me at the Three Sisters of Glen Coe (TRAVELBOOK reported), I still assume that I am alone here in the Highlands at any sight. Reality versus wishful thinking. Perhaps simply the thinking of someone who has experienced a lot of aloneness while traveling and has not yet arrived in the new overtourism reality after Corona.
Car after car after car is parked in a criss-cross pattern kilometers before the point on my Google map that is indicated as the viewpoint to the Glenfinnan Viaduct. So we continued driving, further and further. And I would like to say, fortunately. With luck—or simply due to a quick reaction in view of the free parking space in the midst of cars driving around—we arrive at Glenfinnan Station Museum. Not only are all the people working there extremely helpful and wonderful, we also witness the departure of a train that looks at least similar to the Jacobite Train—the Harry Potter train—that attracts book, movie, and wizard fans to the west of the Highlands. We’ll see the real one a little later.
Mountain Path to the Glenfinnan Viaduct
Our adventure began with a hike. This is precisely why I referred to our experience as “fortunately”. From the museum, wide wooden steps lead to a narrow path. And this in turn leads up the mountain. Now and again in brief close contact with others, I am here, together with my husband and daughter, for many moments alone in nature. At last. Green hills, dense undergrowth, and a wide view down to a lake glistening in the sun and other green hills covered in scrubby vegetation. Apart from one or two honking noises in the distance, it is quiet.
Suddenly, as if materializing from thin air, a man appears behind us. Perhaps in his early 20s and, to my shock, resembling the young Severus Snape. Was it his mysterious appearance or his unsettling habit of vanishing into the bushes only to reemerge close on our heels that set my nerves on edge? I walk a step faster—which is not easy in view of my daughter, who now wants to be carried, and the partly slippery path, which at this point consists of thick stones close to the abyss. Just a few minutes later, the briefly queasy feeling disappears. Severus has once again ducked into the bushes and seems to be making himself at home for the moment, and the path drops away in front of me. As three men hurry past me, I sense that we are getting closer to our destination.
And there it is, or at least part of it. Large, gray, and gigantic, the railroad bridge monstrosity juts out into the green landscape, hidden only by a shrub. I take my first photo, which is to be followed by many more.
The “Harry Potter” Train Attracts Crowds
We walk on and are suddenly surrounded by people. People big and small, sitting everywhere in front of us on stones that act as wide steps built into the hillside. A small path leads further down, lined with people taking photos of themselves, with the bridge, or the bridge itself. It is now 2:45 p.m., about three quarters of an hour until the supposed “Harry Potter” train arrives.
Barely fifteen minutes later, things get busy. An American woman next to me steps from one foot to the other, nudges her companion repeatedly, and complains that the train is late. The bridge crossing time that the woman has read seems to have been seen by others too; necks are repeatedly craned here and there and ears stretched in the direction of the train, but nothing happens. I also read 3 p.m. as the time, as well as 3:30 pm. The latter seemed more reliable to me because it also said 2024, so I’m staying relaxed for now.
Hello, Hogwarts Express
But then, from perhaps five to 3:30 p.m., I notice how my excitement grows. And suddenly it comes round the corner: the Harry Potter train.
The nostalgic train now chugging along the tracks with its white cloud of fog, rumbling wheels, and suddenly sounding horns not only puts a big grin on my face. Smartphone after smartphone is pulled out, entire camera systems follow every centimeter that the dark red train with its black lock moves forward. Both here and on the opposite side, by the way. Many people have gathered there too, speckling the opposite hill like little colorful dots, while we all watch as the iconic Hogwarts train disappears behind a hill.
As suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared again. It leaves behind a lingering sense of joy that outlasts the fleeting moment. Even now, four weeks later, just the memory of the Glenfinnan Viaduct and the “Harry Potter” train manages to put a blissful grin on my face. That’s another reason why I can write about the Glenfinnan Viaduct as a Scottish highlight with a clear conscience—and that after a trip where there were many wonderful moments in a country that I fell in love with.
Also interesting: “I immediately fell in love with Scotland’s capital Edinburgh“
TRAVELBOOK author in the north of Scotland ‘Why the Highlands are a place of longing for me, as well as a seafood paradise’
TRAVELBOOK author in Scotland ‘Why I probably won’t be going to Aberdeen again’
TRAVELBOOK author on site Is a visit to the famous Loch Ness worthwhile?
Glenfinnan Viaduct: Background Information
The famous Glenfinnan Viaduct in the west of the Scottish Highlands is a “famous feat of Victorian engineering and the longest concrete railroad bridge in Scotland”, writes the National Trust for Scotland on its information page. The 380-meter-long railroad viaduct from the 1890s has 21 huge arches. These are up to 30 meters high. The bridge is part of the West Highland Railway, which runs between Fort William and Mallaig.
The Glenfinnan Viaduct has been famous far beyond the country’s borders since its appearance in four of the literary adaptations of “Harry Potter“, where it served as the backdrop for the Hogwarts Express. However, the Scottish railroad bridge has also appeared in other movies and TV shows, such as “The Crown” (2016–2023), “Charlie and Louise” (1994), “Ring of Bright Water” (1969), and, most impressively, in “Charlotte Gray” (2001).