Ancestor Glade is a hidden grove tucked into the Jerall Mountains along Skyrim’s southern edge, east of Falkreath and southwest of Helgen. It is Dawnguard content, and you will almost certainly end up here for one reason: to read an Elder Scroll the old-fashioned way, surrounded by a cloud of glowing moths. It also happens to be one of the prettiest spots in the game, so bring your screenshot finger.
What you’ll find
- A short entrance cave where you cross a small log, opening into a huge sheltered hollow full of trees and waterfalls.
- Small groups of ancestor moths drifting around the glade. Most of them are just scenery – only the ones near the canticle trees on the upper ledges can actually be harvested.
- An odd stone structure in the middle of the glade holding the draw knife you need for the ritual.
- A hot spring, plenty of yellow mountain flowers and some scattered loot, including a soul gem, a shield, a helmet, jewels and potions.
- Outside the entrance: a bedroll, a novice chest and sometimes a dead ice wolf with a pelt. Careful – the pelts and the chest contents count as stolen.
- Enemies that depend on your choice in the Dawnguard storyline. If you sided with the vampires, expect spriggans plus Dawnguard members with an armored troll. If you joined the Dawnguard, vampires, thralls and a gargoyle turn up instead.
Quests
Unseen Visions (Dawnguard) – the whole point of the trip. Grab the draw knife, use it to scrape bark from a canticle tree, and the bark attracts a swarm of ancestor moths big enough to perform the Ritual of the Ancestor Moth and read the Elder Scroll (Blood).
Notable items
- Ancestor Moth Wings – this is the only place to collect them, and each harvested moth gives two wings.
- Yellow mountain flowers – a thorough sweep can net around 55 of them.
- Canticle bark and the draw knife – both stop being quest items once you have read the scroll, so you can sell or store them afterwards.
Tips
Finding the entrance is the hardest part. One route goes from Peak’s Shade Tower along the winding path to a cobblestone road, east past a bandit tower, then up a clearing on the ridge towards a huge hollow log lying on the ground. From there, a darker trail hugging the ridge to the west leads around the mountain to the glade.
Bring Serana along and chat with her while a few moth swarms are circling you – she has some extra lines for the occasion. Alchemists should strip the upper ledges for wings before leaving, since you can’t buy a second glade.
Good to know
The glade plays calm outdoor music rather than the usual gloomy cave tracks. And if you shout Become Ethereal while moths are following you, the moths go ghostly too.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Peak’s Shade Tower, Ancient’s Ascent, Angi’s Camp, Bonechill Passage, Falkreath.
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.
