Can't find Fort Dawnguard

[ScruffyThePirate]

I go to the marker on the map to start Dawnguard but there is literally nothing there. What do i need to do to start this quest/DLC?

[Arcamean]

It's in the VERY VERY far right corner you may need to finagle your map a bit but you'll see it. It's down near Riften.

[Nettle]

Ignore[www.uesp.net] the marker - you're looking for a cave entrance[www.uesp.net] illuminated by two braziers.

Take the road that leads east from Riften. Right after the road turns southeast and you cross a small bridge, start watching the cliffs to your left. You'll find a small crack in the side of a cliff—the entrance to Dayspring Canyon. It's found between a hollow green log and a broken birch tree. A narrow, winding path leads you towards the fortress, Fort Dawnguard.

[ScruffyThePirate]

Thank you that seemed a lot more complicated than it should have

[Sightless17]

They way I found it was to have only the Dawnguard quest selected and then followed my compass to find the cave. Ignore the Map Maker though, only the compass is true. It was actually quite fun because I had no idea how are I still had to go. The map does take away a little of the gameplay.

[ShocksVR #AirLink]

Originally posted by j6m:

Ignore[www.uesp.net] the marker - you're looking for a cave entrance[www.uesp.net] illuminated by two braziers.

Ya, took me like 30 minutes to figure that out. I wish Bethesda would have thought out the marker placement a little better.

[Threemoons]

THANK YOU. I have a ton of plugins and had thought at first that one of them borked Dawnguard. Yes, the marker is useless...I kept running around a fort looking for the entrance.

[Yggdrasil]

I see it on my map, but when I try to send my character there, he stops at an archway before reaching the tower and I get a message I can't go that way. What gives? Also, the arrow on my map that shows where to go for Dawnguard is near a valley down south, but there's no one there. I wandered around quite a bit an never found anyone there. On the other hand, I did get an uptick in vampyre attacks and references to Dawnguard elsewhere. How do I initialize the quest?

[Threemoons]

Rolf--did you get the "starter comment" from one of the guards? A good bet is to go to Whiterun and talk to any of the guards (especially after a vampire attack) and they will then mention that the Dawnguard is recruiting.

[Nettle]

Originally posted by rolfskalder:

How do I initialize the quest?

Scroll up a bit. Alternatively, try this[www.nexusmods.com].

[Edited due to broken link]

[Threemoons]

FYI all--just uploaded a screenshot to my profile showing the correct location of the Dawngoard cave.

[Rich]

Since this is obviously broken (got this problem too and i've already replayed Dawnguard twice) whats the commande in console to teleport to the area? There is a call on cell command iirc ? I ran around for over an hour looking for this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ place, one more minute of this ♥♥♥♥ and i'll uninstall this for good.

[gnewna]

Did you look for the cavern by the road (just past a bridge a few minutes out of Riften)? It's not obvious (if you have the quest markers switched off, especially) but it is there.

[Kain Drakan]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil:

I see it on my map, but when I try to send my character there, he stops at an archway before reaching the tower and I get a message I can't go that way. What gives? Also, the arrow on my map that shows where to go for Dawnguard is near a valley down south, but there's no one there. I wandered around quite a bit an never found anyone there. On the other hand, I did get an uptick in vampyre attacks and references to Dawnguard elsewhere. How do I initialize the quest?

That's exactly what I"m getting. I get to the arch and I get the "You can't go there" message. It's p!ssing me off, that marker is totally useless. So I'll just do what someone suggested, to go by the marker on the compass with only that quest selected. Wish me luck, LOL.

[Uncle64]

Why necro one old tread?
You are at the wrong place if you are at the arc.
Go back and try to find one small cave, there is one fire next to it.

[gnewna]

Top tip: if you can't find somewhere/something in Skyrim and written instructions such as "don't go right off to the east of the map, it's a cave-like entrance just past a bridge on the road east of Riften" are confusing (I have this problem sometimes) try looking for a YouTube video, for instance, typing "finding fort dawnguard" into the YT search bar got me several results which demonstrate how to find it.

(Also as Uncle64 says, it's better to start your own thread than comment on one from years ago, which will spam people's notifications and such.)