Harry Potter filming location, Goathland Railway Station, East Yorkshire

I've never read or seen a Harry Potter book or film as I can't relate to fantasy. The moment I hear a novel or film includes a dragon, unicorn, wizard, human-looking alien, half-man/half-beaver, etc my heart sinks as I think "Oh no not another one." I just can't take supernatural stuff seriously. I wish I wasn't like this but liquids have frozen to stone in my brain and I won't change now. Here I am at a Harry Potter filming location, a picturesque railway station nestling in a hollow in the North Yorkshire moors.

Every few years I make a summer visit to Goathland near Whitby to see the heather. Someone told me Goathland rail station was "Hogsmeade Station" in Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone. This bonny place was also used in the comedy film Keeping Mum featuring Rowan Atkinson and Kristin Scott Thomas however I know it as the railway station in the television series Heartbeat. I can understand why any film maker would warm to it - it's cute, quiet, quaint and quintessentially English. Moreover it looks like it hasn't changed for a century. I read the last major change was made in 1908. There's a sign up saying the fine for leaving the gate open is £2 (probably 1/2p in 1900? Still low - I expected it to say £100.) The station is a short walk from Goathland village and you dip down an incline to reach it. In snow you're probably best sliding down on your luggage/bum. There's a shop, tea room, solid benches that will outlive anyone and trains are passing through regularly.

Here're a few photographs. I had to suffer the ordeal of watching the Harry Potter film to see where the station appears - not much really - a fleeting minute or two near the beginning and end.

Afterwards I drove up and out of Goathland village and stopped to have a coffee and admire the purple heather. It's usually at its dazzling best around the middle of August. The shrill birdsong was deafening yet I couldn't see any birds. I'm sure the Tourist Information Bureaux play birdsongs through secret speakers hidden in the grasses. I drove up to Grosmont to see a few brotherly/sisterly geeks and the odd steam train.

Hagrid on the platform...