Nearly every open world that Bethesda creates is packed with hundreds of quests, items, and hidden secrets that most will miss on their first playthrough. Skyrim is no exception to this, containing one of the most feature-dense locations ever seen in The Elder Scrolls franchise.
Part of what makes Skyrim so immersive and enjoyable is the number of locations there are. Hundreds of marked locations exist for players to find, but many unmarked locations exist that have their own stories to share. Old ruins, bandit camps, and shrines each have unique stories to tell. Few places have as many interesting unmarked locations as Eastmarch, an area controlled by the Stormcloak Rebellion and home to Ulfirc Stormcloak. Here are 10 hidden locations in Eastmarch that most players have likely never visited.
10 Lucky Lorenz's Shack
Southeast of the Abandoned Prison lies a river with a destroyed shack near it. This shack once belonged to Lucky Lorenz, an NPC that had his house ironically crushed by a tree when he moved in.
Inside the destroyed shack lies a treasure map, skill book, and a wide range of ingredients.
9 Windhelm Shrine of Talos
West of the Windhelm Stables past a river lies a shrine of Talos overlooking Windhelm. While that alone is rather fitting for Talos to look over Ulfric's domain, what's interesting is there's a book near the shrine named "The Talos Mistake."
This book critiques Talos and the Empire accepting the worship of the divine figure before the White-Gold Concordant was signed. It seems a Thalmor agent must have found the shrine at some point.
8 Uttering Hills Frost Troll Den
Heading east of Uttering Hills will reveal a small den with a flag waving over Eastmarch. Inside the crag is a frost troll who has recently killed a Stormcloak soldier and wolf.
It seems the frost troll must have caught the soldier off guard during a patrol outside of Windhelm and dragged their corpse to this location. The loot inside is nothing remarkable, containing Stormcloak armor and basic Alchemy ingredients on the animal corpses.
7 Eldergleam Sanctuary
The central part of Eastmarch has a unique cave named the Eldergleam Sanctuary that houses one of the oldest trees in Skyrim. Entering this location will anger multiple spriggans.
A pathway towards the tree is visible but inaccessible unless players have Nettlebane, a unique dagger that can be found during "The Blessings of Nature" questline.
6 Cronvangr Summoning Altar
East of Cronvangr lies a strange altar in the middle of Eastmarch. Walking near the altar will result in two necromancers ambushing the player.
Various Draugr bodies float above the water, and the remains of a novice conjurer can be found here. It's likely the necromancers found the conjurer practicing here, killed them, then used this area as a testing ground for resurrecting corpses.
5 Dunmeth Pass
Directly east of Windhelm towards the edge of the map lies Dunmeth Pass, an unmarked passage towards Morrowind. Trying to pass this point is impossible normally as there's an invisible wall blocking the path.
That said, players that use console commands can clip past the gate and invisible wall to find a recreation of Vvardenfell's Red Mountian. Players can get a better and more detailed view of this mountain while on Solstheim.
4 Sulfur Pools Hunter Camp
East of the Eldergleam Sanctuary lies a hunter camp that sits atop of a sulfur pool. These bandits can be seen periodically swimming near the camp.
It functions as a standard bandit camp otherwise that has lackluster loot. Even bandits need to relax every once in a while.
3 The Mournful Giant
Southeast of Mistwatch is a small hot spring that has a dead mammoth and giant. The giant appears to be mourning the loss of the mammoth, as players can walk close to it without making the giant angry. This is the only giant in Skyrim that is not aggressive to the player unless attacked.
Besides how sad this small area is, it goes to show that giants have a small degree of emotional intelligence unlike most of the creatures that roam Skyrim's landscape.
2 Hidden Hunter's Camp
East of the Windhelm Stables lies a hidden Hunter's Camp that is unmarked on a player's map. It appears to be a normal camp at first glance, but the player's first time walking into this location will trigger a troll attack.
For players that are in the Civil War questline, reaching this location will reveal an Imperial camp instead. The troll attack occurs regardless.
1 Windhelm Pit
Before Skyrim released, Bethesda planned for an arena to be in Windhelm similar to the Cyrodiil arena in Oblivion. Whenever someone would be arrested, they could either serve their sentence or be thrown into "The Pit" and fight for their chance at freedom.
While the Windhelm Pit never made it into the final game officially, its unfinished state can still be explored. On PC, players can type "coc WindhelmPitEntrance" into the command console to load up this unfinished level. Players can see the arena where they would fight to the death alongside a few audience members cheering the prisoners on. It is unknown why this was cut from the final game.