Inaccessible areas

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Inaccessible areas

A misbehaving player imprisoned in a normally inaccessible area, the upstairs of Al Kharid Palace

Inaccessible areas are areas that exist in RuneScape, have ground, and hypothetically could be walked on, but players can never actually access.

These locations exist for a variety of reasons. In the distant past, when a new area was about to be added to RuneScape, it was common to fence off the area but allow players to see enough of it to get excited. Modernly, inaccessible areas are often purely for aesthetic appeal. Sometimes inaccessible areas do serve a function, such as the Lesser demon cage in the Wizard's tower, which can be used to train magic or ranged. Other times, it seems like an inaccessible area may have been somewhere that Jagex planned to expand, but never got around to in RuneScape Classic.

Inaccessible structures

There are many buildings and other structures that cannot be entered.

Map	Image	Location	Info
		Varrock	The Varrock west bank has a Bank vault in the basement with various treasures inside. Players cannot enter the bank vault, but can cast Telekinetic grab on the riches through the gate.
		Varrock	The Varrock Museum has an exhibit featuring several iron and bronze war relics. These can be stolen from the museum with Telekinetic grab.
		Varrock	The Varrock Museum also keeps a Chest, a Coffin, and a couple of pillars behind some railing.
		Black Knights Fortress	During the Black knight's fortress quest, there is a room where the Black Knights are creating their weapon. You cannot directly enter this room, but instead drop something nasty down from above to ruin the weapon.
		West Ardougne	There are a couple condemned houses in West Ardougne due to the plague from the Plague City questline. This particular house is the only plague house you cannot enter at any point. The upstairs of this house is the only inaccessible structure in RuneScape Classic that cannot be viewed at all. It is too far away from any nearby structure to see what is inside, but it can be seen in the map files that there is a place for a downward ladder.
		Hemenster	This building is part of the scenery from the Fishing Contest quest. During the quest, you place garlic inside the pipe on the side of this building. The building itself though is empty and cannot be entered.
		Tutorial island	The Combat instructor has a little shed built with grates in front. It can be assumed this is a home for the Tutorial Island Rats.
		Tree Gnome Stronghold	There are 16 tree-top homes in the Tree Gnome Stronghold. In this one, you can only enter the northern half. Three gnome children reside on the inaccessible southern half. They are safe from ranged and mage attacks, completely inaccessible behind the Fence.
		Port Khazard	Although most boats in RuneScape Classic are comprised of a front half and a back half placed carefully next to each other, the Fishing Trawler boats are the largest in the game, featuring an additional middle section that can be walked in. There is a trawler boat docked at Port Khazard that the player never enters, as they are instead transported directly into a Trawler boat at sea by Murphy.
		Gu'tanoth	There are three watchtowers in Gu'tanoth that Ogres keep watch over their city from. These are purely decorative and the ogres that spawn here do not actually interact with players at all. This one is furthest to the north-east.
		Gu'tanoth	The southernmost of the aforementioned Ogre watchtowers. This one is to the south of the north-east watchtower, on the way into a skavid cave
		Gu'tanoth	The westernmost of the three Ogre watchtowers. This one is to the north-west, overlooking the main entrace to Gu'tanoth.
		Wilderness	There is a courtyard in the center of the Dark Warriors' Fortress. Unlike in later versions of RuneScape, where the location was used as a clue scroll step, there is no way into the center of the fortress in RuneScape Classic.
		Wilderness	By the ghost house and giants, there is a ruined house that has been split in half with lava. A plank and tile spawn on the side of the house that is inaccessible due to the lava stream. They can be telegrabbed.

Upstairs only

Although all buildings with at least two floors must have walls defined on the upper level, it is not common for there to also be flooring defined unless players can access it. The presence of an inaccessible second floor may imply that the developers intended to make an upstairs and didn't get around to it.

Map	Image	Location	Info
		Al Kharid	On the upstairs of Al Kharid Palace, there is an empty room. This room was sometimes used by Jagex moderators to interrogate misbehaving players. According to reports of those imprisoned there, you cannot teleport away from this room.
		Falador	On the upstairs of the White Knights Castle (middle floor), there is a large empty room in the south-east portion of the floor. The dimensions of the room are identical to the room below where the Squire is, but there are no doors into this large section of the castle.
		Ardougne	The gate leading into Ardougne Castle has an upstairs. It's probable that the two rooms underneath were meant to have ladders going up, similar to the layout of Lumbridge Castle. For whatever reason, the ladders were never placed.
		Legends' Guild	When first entering the Legends' Guild courtyard, before you can enter the main Guild, there is a building where Sir Radimus Erkle has an office. This building has an inaccessible and empty upstairs.
		Varrock	Not every two-story building in Varrock has floor defined, but the building the Apothecary does business from and the large empty building south of him both have inaccessible upper floors.

Cages

These sections of the map are specifically cordoned off in order to contain whatever is inside, and to keep the general public out.

Map	Image	Location	Info
		Tutorial Island	During the Magic section of Tutorial Island, there is a clucking chicken that the Magic instructor suggests that you practice Wind strike on. Fun fact: you do not need to cast Wind strike to continue the tutorial. Simply continue talking to the Magic instructor until he lets you through the next door.
		Wizards tower	It seems a darkwizard imprisoned a Lesser demon atop the Wizards tower for some reason. This demon was present in the game at launch, and it can be ranged or maged. However, Telekinetic grab wouldn't be available until a few months later in May. By July 2001, this demon should have been a popular spot to try and safely obtain a rune medium helmet.
		Varrock	Upstairs of the Varrock Museum, there is an exhibit of a stuffed bear. The bear doesn't have a level, doesn't move, and is in fact the only exhibit on the second floor. More exhibits were likely planned, but they would not be added until 29 May 2007 in RuneScape 2 (Update).
		Ardougne	A more lively bear exhibit can be found at the Ardougne Zoo. The two unhealthy trees in this exhibit are among the few in RuneScape Classic that players cannot chop.
		Ardougne	Similarly, a camel exhibit can be found at the Ardougne Zoo. The two cacti in this exhibit are the only ones in RuneScape Classic players cannot refill their waterskins at, due to them being inaccessible.
		Ardougne	The Ardougne Zoo also has a Grey wolf exhibit. Raw chicken is inside the cage, and can be telegrabbed if players want to take it away from the wolf. The cage has a shelter inside, with the roof only covering half the structure.
		Ardougne	Finally, the Ardougne Zoo has a Scorpion exhibit. There are some ferns inside the enclosure.
		Temple of Ikov	During the Temple of Ikov quest, you must kill The Fire warrior of lesarkus with Ice arrows in order to progress through the door. He is trapped in a cage.
		Shilo Village	There are two areas full of UndeadOnes on the way into Shilo Village. The first one, to the East, can be entered. The Western area cannot be entered. This was a popular training spot for Ranged due to the large number of UndeadOnes available to train on.
		Port Sarim	The Port Sarim Jail has five cells and each are inaccessible areas. From north to south, west to east: a Thief, a Pirate, Wormbrain, a mugger, and a Black Knight are imprisoned here. Unlike in RuneScape 2, players are not transported inside a cell when they offend Shantay & his men. Instead, players are placed just outside.
		Fight Arena	The Khazard troops imprisoned fightslave joe and fightslave kelvin in these inaccessible cells. They can only be talked to through the gates.
		Fight Arena	The Khazard troops also imprisoned Jeremy Servil. The main objective of Fight Arena quest is freeing him.
		Battle Field	This brave gnome, code name "tracker 2", has also been imprisoned by the Khazard troops.

Islands

Map	Image	Location	Info
		River Lum	This small landmass between Varrock and Lumbridge might possibly have been formed by erosion from the nearby sewer pipes. There are ferns and Bullrushes here.
		Near Coal Trucks	There are several bushes along the northern coast of the coal trucks. This island has a single solitary bush on it.
		East of the Digsite	This is the largest inaccessible island. It was created in order to form a river to pan for gold nuggets in. If this landmass didn't exist, players would appear to be panning for gold in the ocean, which is not a typically fruitful way of collecting gold in real life. In RuneScape 2, this island was given an eastern half, in the middle of an expanded "River Salve". However, by mid-to-late 2005, the island was deleted.
		Unknown	There are a few small islands that the player flies over during a cutscene when using a Gnome glider. These islands are seen no matter where the player flies to. The eastern island contain 8 Trees and the western one contains 3 Trees.
		Off-coast of the Fishing Platform	An extremely small island right next to the island that kent is found on during Sea Slug quest. It features only a PalmTree.
		South of Tai Bwo Wannai	The only estuary of its kind in RuneScape Classic, several small landmasses are formed by the river flowing into the sea.
		North-west of Red Dragon Isle	Part of the scenery of Red Dragon Isle. A single unhealthy tree is here.
		East of Red Dragon Isle	Part of the scenery of Red Dragon Isle. A single unhealthy tree is here.
		South-east of the Demonic Ruins	There is an inaccessible area known among players as Nature-Rune Isle, which contains two different spawns of Nature-Runes. Only the western stack may be reached by Telekinetic Grab, which grants 4 Nature-runes if successfully cast. There is also a Mushroom and an unhealthy tree on the island.

Land borders

These inaccessible areas were placed as aesthetic dividers between regions. They're included either to more gracefully transition between land and sea, or to imply the existence of a larger area that continued on.

Map	Image	Location	Info
		Bordering the Underground Pass	The Underground Pass is actually only partially underground. The pit that players fall in, with Souless, Klank, Niloof, and Kamen, it's actually on ground level. To keep the illusion of it being underground, a fence was built all the way around the area, with a small buffer in between so players couldn't peek in. Without this buffer, players would be able to see into the Underground Pass from the areas south of Tree Gnome Stronghold and west of the Grave of Scorpius. The buffer area is not so mountainous as to be untraversable, if only players could access the inside of the gate.
		West of Gnome Ball Field	This scenic area is designed so that the entire Tree Gnome Stronghold is surrounded by a fence, and to finish off the western gnome river. There are 3 Sheep here, some flax, Bullrushes, Flowers, Rocks, and fish.
		Temple of Ikov	This small strip of lava shore in the Temple of Ikov is technically an inaccessible area, as it is just barely large enough to hypothetically be walked on. It is needed so that the bridge leading into the room with the lever looks correct.
		Tree Gnome Stronghold	There is an entire chunk of land far to the west of the Lava Maze that the player is temporarily teleported to when entering the doors of the Grand Tree. This was done so that 5 separate floors could be crammed into the 4 floors that are available for use when designing structures in Classic. Only the inside portion of the tree is accessible. The empty grassland outside is not.
		Fisher Realm	Around the entire perimeter of the dying version of the Realm, there is a fence with land behind it. There are many unhealthy trees here.
		Fisher Realm	Around the entire perimeter of the restored version of the Realm, there is a fence with land behind it. Most of the trees are healthy again.
		Gu'tanoth	Although much of the border of Gu'tanoth is too mountainous to traverse, there are several sections, such as the southern border, that look perfectly fine to walk on, if not for the giant wall built around the settlement. Some sections closer to the center could possibly be flat enough to walk on as well.
		Observatory	On all four sides of the Observatory building, there is a little one-wide path that could hypothetically be walked on.

See also

• Unobtainable items
• Player owned houses