My walk around the edge of Skyrim took me roughly two days (Real life days that is). It's been a interesting journey.

I started in the Rift at the 'Lost Tongue Overlook' and walked clockwise all around the perimeter of the game.
The reason it took me a bit longer is that i was also trying to do as much "mountain climbing" as possible, exploiting the rather weird collision detection in Skyrim that lets you walk along vertical cliffs and climb steep inclines.

"You cannot go that way" was a frequently seen message during my journey.


Even if you think you've seen it all, chances are you'll find something you haven't seen before.
I've been playing since 11.11.11 and i still found a few interesting places i hadn't seen yet!


I took a bunch of screenshots that i'll post tomorrow. Too tired right now, time to got to sleep ...

I've thought about doing this myself but haven't gotten around to it yet. One of my favorite things to do in Morrowind was swim/run around the entire coastlines of Solstheim and Vvardenfell. It was sometimes more fun than doing quests.

Interesting you say? Now I too want to go on this journey. Seems like a place I can't really take a companion though.

Correct, but interestingly enough, my companion Annekke did show up at some rather unexpected moments. We started together but i quickly lost her climbing the mountains. Every once in a while i was forced down to some normally accessible areas and in some spots, she would show up.
Seems like she was following me along the lowlands trying to keep up.

I also did a few pit-stops in the bigger cities that are close to the edge to stock up on supplies and sell loot from the random trolls and bandits i did encounter.
Annekke always managed to catch up with me during those brakes. She was right there when i finished the journey tonight.

What was your favourite locale on the edge?

There is a somewhat hidden valley on the southern border behind mountains I thought were simply the edge of the map.

Hard to say...

I ran into at least 3 dwarven ruins from above where i wasn't supposed to be. Bypassing the normal ascend by dropping in from above.
At one place, i ran into a whole group of enemies. A Troll, a Hagraven, a Witch and a Wispmother. All within 50 feet of each other.

Then there was the dead prospector under a collapsed, snow-covered tent right next to some quicksilver ore outcrops.

I spotted several hunter and bandit camps i never knew were there. Found a few mines along the way. Stumbled into Angi's Camp. A Wolf Den waaaaay up on a mountain. And a few Trolls to keep it interesting.

Oh, and did you know that Hawk nests disappear when you kill the Hawk?

I tried this but quickly stopped. By quickly I mean after an hour or so of climing around the same mountain so I can actually find the damned border. It's a pain climbing these unclimbable mountains. There's almost always a way with some fidgeting, but I gave up.

I've traveled around quite a bit of it but never did the entire loop. More like broken up into sections that I did while I was in the area. But I did find there were quite a few locations on the outer edges that would not normally be found in a standard play through. The ocean areas were probably the strangest to me. I find it lonesome and a bit unnerving being out that far in the water with nothing but icebergs floating around. I kept waiting on some huge sea creature to show up and kill me. There were times when the next iceflow was just within reach when I hit the invisible border. That was rather frustrating.

And here are some screenshots ...

Note, this was all done without any cheats or console commands.
Just plain old jumping and mountain climbing.


Starting out at night in the Rift:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot567.png

Still in the Rift, that's Annekke down there:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot570.png

Riften in the far distance:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot577.png

More of the same, looking down on Treva's Watch:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot578.png

Overlooking Arcwind Point:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot584.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot585.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot592.png

On top of Markarth:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot605.png

Ragnvald:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot608.png

On top of the arch at Volskygge:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot610.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot611.png

Made it to the sea:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot618.png

Flying fish!
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot621.png

Above the Sacellum of Boethiah:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot632.png

Nice view of Windhelm:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot634.png

Wolf Den on a mountain top:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot635.png

Looking down on Narzulbur:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot642.png

Way above Mzulft:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot649.png

Mzulft: Nice glass dome, too bad nobody will ever see it
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot647.png

The map, somewhere way up in the mountains:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot653.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot659.png

Above Kagrenzel:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot658.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot662.png

Dead prospector in the mountains:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot664.png

Afraid of heights?
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot667.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot671.png

Hawk nest:
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot680.png
http://sirandy.org/skyrim/walk/ScreenShot682.png


That's it for now ...

I've done it before, was mainly looking for the "Gates" everyone kept talking about. Like Pale Pass/Morrowind/High Rock/etc.

I bet none of you ever paid attention, BUT, there are location markers beyond the barriers near Falkreath that you CANNOT REACH. Period, I've tried for a long time there's no way to get to them.

You can see them on your compass, there's "some" near Riften but more of them are near Falkreath. Always got me wondering.. why are there Caves/Towers/etc. out in a place I cannot reach?

DLC?

You can reach at least one of them, but not directly. There's one where you have to enter a different location and there is a passage that exits on top of the mountain near the marked location.

There is no direct way, well, besides climbing the mountain ...

Damn why didn't I think of that. ( runs off to play morrowind ).