Stendarr’s Beacon is a stone watchtower southeast of Riften and Broken Helm Hollow, and south of Giant’s Grove. A small band of Vigilants of Stendarr lives here – and with the Dawnguard add-on, it becomes one of the last places they hold out after vampires tear through their main hall.
What you’ll find
- Vigilants of Stendarr – a few of them, friendly as long as you keep your hands to yourself.
- A shrine to Stendarr at the bottom of the tower.
- An unlocked chest at the top, whose contents are owned.
- A cooking spit next to the tower and, on the other side, a table laid with food and a satchel.
- A skeleton around the back with a leveled sword and helmet beside it.
- Ore: two iron veins east of the tower and a silver vein a few steps west of the spit.
Notable items
- The Exodus (Restoration skill book), among the bedrolls on the lower level.
- Leveled sword and helmet by the skeleton behind the tower.
Tips
That chest at the top is a trap of the social kind: help yourself and both the Vigilants and the hold guards will come after you. Read the book, mine the veins, pray at the shrine and leave the chest alone.
If you are heading for the Dawnguard fortress, the beacon is your signpost. The way into Dayspring Canyon lies to the north: walk down the mountain from the tower and look for a small opening in the slope ahead, marked by lit torches.
Good to know
The location is marked as cleared only if all three Vigilants are killed, and they never come back – a grim way to tick a box. To the northeast lies the border with Morrowind, which you cannot cross in normal play.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Broken Helm Hollow, Forelhost, Black-Briar Lodge, Lost Tongue Overlook, Nightingale Hall.
Location data (hold, map position, editor ID) read from the Skyrim game files; details checked against community wiki articles and summarised in our own words.