Fort Fellhammer is a battered stone fort southeast of Dawnstar. On your first visit it is a bandit hideout, but once Aela the Huntress sends you after the Silver Hand it may be crawling with werewolf hunters instead. Either way the drill is the same: clear the yard, take out the leader in the garrison, then raid the mine for iron.
What you’ll find
- A round, open courtyard with about three enemies outside – easy to read and easy to fight in. A breach in the outer wall lets sneaky types skip the front gate.
- Fort Fellhammer Garrison – just two rooms. The Bandit Chief or Silver Hand leader waits in the second one, with the boss chest behind them and a dagger and some books on the table.
- Fort Fellhammer Mines – an expert-locked door at the back of the courtyard. Inside, four more enemies, a spiral tunnel that loops under itself and a tripwire rock fall on the lower level.
- Around ten iron ore veins plus ten loose iron ores, several of them tucked into two wheelbarrows (one is hidden under a shovel).
- A smelter in the courtyard, so you can turn that ore into ingots on the spot.
Quests
- Stealing Plans – during Companions storyline, Aela can send you here, and the fort may then be held by the Silver Hand.
- Retrieve Kharjo’s Moon Amulet – one of the possible places for Kharjo‘s lost amulet.
- Recover Hrolfdir’s Shield and Striking the Heart can also point here, and it is a possible spot for the Helm of Winterhold and a Dawnguard rescue mission.
Notable items
- Orsinium and the Orcs (Heavy Armor) on the only table in the mine.
- The Black Arrow, v1 on the table in the garrison, next to a leveled dagger.
- A garnet sitting on a barrel at the very end of the mine, and the Fellhammer Mine Key on the leader’s body.
Tips
Kill the leader first and grab the mine key – it saves you an expert lockpick attempt. Bring a pickaxe if you do not have one (there are two lying around inside anyway), and let the enemies blunder into the rock fall trap for you. Players report that the ore here sometimes never respawns, so mine everything on the first visit.
Good to know
Shuffle the letters of Fellhammer and you get Hammerfell. Someone at the fort clearly missed home.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Snowpoint Beacon, Duskglow Crevice, Driftshade Refuge, Fort Dunstad, Red Road Pass.
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.
