I was going around the Northern part of Skyrim today and I came across a skeleton next to ~8 gold ingots. He was on an iceberg/island in the very far northeast..how you guys found anything similar at locations that weren't marked? Anywhere in the game I guess.

Tons of stuff like this. I find more every time I start a new character. I just recently found the skeleton you're talking about for the very first time, and that's after nine months of playing regularly.

Also on the north coast, east of Dawnstar, is a tent where two lovers were having a rendezvous, possibly on their honeymoon judging by what you find inside. I've never found any clues as to what happened to them but maybe I just haven't looked hard enough.

Found a Talos shrine once that I'd never stumbled on after months of playing, overlooking a little pond. Even got ambushed by some Thalmor there when I went back to check it out more carefully.

Heck there are several locations that do get marked on the map that I've never discovered yet.

I love the northern coasts. You get some great sunset and sunrise vistas.

One cute place I found early on was the "lovebird" tent with the amulet of Mara, flower-strewn beds and the cream tarts that look like ta-tas. lol

did you find that bloody cage with dead skeevers around? it's strange but iirc one of them was half in the ground and so was a dead human. I found it long ago and only really remember thinking wtf ha

Actually, I think much of the appeal of Skyrim is in exploring. The designers left a lot of stuff out there for us to find. Much of it rather mysterious. For instance, what do you make of treasure map VI? What led those people there? What killed them? Did they kill each other? Who knows!

Rather than obsessing over how many quests you can do in some area, I think the real charm is just finding stuff.

To the OP: Have you found the Necromancer raising an army of dead chickens yet?