Bleakcoast Cave

Icy coastal cave east-southeast of Winterhold, home to four frost trolls, a Two-Handed skill book and an unlucky crowd of dead adventurers.

Bleakcoast Cave sits on the frozen northeastern coast, east-southeast of Winterhold and due north of Snow Veil Sanctum. It is a compact cave with one main chamber and three smaller side areas, and it belongs entirely to a family of frost trolls. Come for a Companions job or a skill book; leave with fewer health potions than you brought.

What you’ll find

  • Four frost trolls – the only residents, and not the friendly kind.
  • Several earlier visitors who clearly lost the argument: a dead Khajiit, a dead bandit, and a dead conjurer, each with something worth looting.
  • A skeleton hanging upside down from the ceiling, frozen in the ice from the waist down.
  • A simple layout: one larger cavern with three small offshoots, so it is hard to get lost but equally hard to escape a charging troll.

Quests

Animal Extermination – the Companions can send you here to wipe out the frost trolls that have been bothering the locals.

Notable items

  • Battle of Sancre Tor, a Two-Handed skill book, on the body of the novice conjurer.
  • An enchanted greatsword.
  • Two coin purses – one next to the dead Khajiit, one wedged rather awkwardly between the dead bandit’s legs.
  • An apothecary’s satchel beside the dead conjurer.

Tips

Four frost trolls at once is a lot of regenerating fur, so try not to wake them all together. Fire is your best friend here, and fighting near a chokepoint at the entrance of one of the side areas keeps you from getting surrounded. Archers can soften them up from range before they close the distance. Afterwards, harvest some troll fat – the trolls do not need it anymore.

Good to know

The skeleton dangling from the icy ceiling is widely read as a nod to the ice cave on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Unlike that particular hero, this one did not make it out.

Nearby

Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Journeyman’s Nook, Wreck of The Pride of Tel Vos, Snow Veil Sanctum, Whistling Mine, The Serpent Stone.

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.

Characters found here

Quests that lead here

Side Quest
Old hunter Froki Whetted-Blade sends you across Skyrim to slay seven ghostly guardian beasts in honour of Kyne, ending with the guardian troll.

Creatures you will meet

Trolls and Frost Trolls regenerate health and hit hard. Where they live in Skyrim and why fire is your best friend against them.

Weapons found here

Armor found here

Items found here

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Sources checked: Skyrim game files (map markers, location records, read 2026-10-11); Elder Scrolls Fandom location articles (export 2026-10-11)