George Heriot's School

From the back windows of the Elephant House cafe, J.K. Rowling could see this turreted, castle-like school rising above Greyfriars Kirkyard, and the resemblance to Hogwarts is hard to miss. Four towers, four houses, a sacred silver cup trophy, a school for orphans — the parallels between George Heriot's and the fictional wizarding school are remarkable, though Rowling has never officially confirmed the connection. Her own children attended the school, which makes the denial somewhat harder to maintain.

George Heriot was James VI's royal goldsmith — essentially the jeweller to the Scottish king who became James I of England in 1603. Known as "Jinglin' Geordie" for the sound of coins in his pocket, Heriot accumulated enormous wealth by lending money to the perpetually cash-strapped royal family. When he died in 1624, he left his fortune to found a "hospital" — a charitable school and almshouse — to care for the "puir, faitherless bairns" of Edinburgh. The school was established in 1628 and opened its doors to students in 1659.

The building itself is one of Edinburgh's finest pieces of Renaissance architecture, designed in a Scottish Jacobean style with ornate stonework, a central courtyard, and those four distinctive towers. During the Civil War, Cromwell's troops used it as a barracks — the school didn't actually receive its first students until after the Restoration. The chapel inside features intricate woodwork and stained glass, and the grounds, though not open to the public, can be glimpsed from Greyfriars Kirkyard and the Vennel steps.

The school still uses a four-house system — Lauriston, Greyfriars, Raeburn, and Castle — and has produced an impressive list of alumni, including the mathematician Colin Maclaurin and, more recently, the actor Ian Charleson of 'Chariots of Fire' fame.