Since the great collapse Winterhold has barely held onto its status as a town. Not a single Yarl in the one hundred years since has been able to revitalize what was once a thriving community. But revitalization is a greater task than one might believe. The only locally available resource’s are from hunting or fishing, and there is no longer a proper road for a cart to transport to or from the sea shore, only a steep slippery trail.

(artistic license) Winterhold was once the home of Skyrim’s Masons Guild, famous for their signature high peaked roofs, was completely destroyed. The only portion of the town left standing after the collapse was the small expansion used mostly for worker and refugee housing. It was subsequently demolished along with most of the remaining perimeter wall to build the structures you see today. However, construction was rushed and the standard skyrim architecture was not proper for the nearly constant snow Winterhold experiences. The only part of the perimeter wall that survived was not located on flat ground.

Most of the people of Winterhold died in the collapse, and most of those that survived and rebuilt, eventually left. The Masons Guild was never re-established. The meat market and the road to it was gone. The port to ship the meat throughout all Tamriel was gone, the business model destroyed in less than a minute. From that time until today the transporting of any meat or fish to the town was on that narrow and dangerous trail. Without the port, there was no point in rebuilding the cold storage warehouses. The town of Winterhold died that day, one hundred years ago. What you see now is the ruin of what was once the proud city of Winterhold.


Why?

I have been selecting mods for my play-through and I was just not satisfied with the ones for Winterhold. So I took a short break from a larger mod to make Winterhold work for me. This mod will not be for most of you. It keeps the vanilla feel of a winter wasteland town. Yet it fulfills my staunch belief that all hold capitals are deserving of some form of defenses. There are many fine and well polished mods that have the town even more ruined (even after 100 years) but somehow more populated than vanilla. Or completely rebuilt the town and somehow prosperous without a port or agriculture. It’s just an overflow of magic from the college I guess. Well, as you can tell, there are problems with some of these solutions that I just can’t get past. But as I said they are well done and are deserving of mention here:

Winterhold Restored (May be compatible, according to mod pictures)
Winterhold - Expanded Ruins (Not compatible)
Anna's Winterhold Restored (Unable to determine compatibility from mod pictures)
ClefJ's Winterhold (Not compatible)
Winterhold Fully Restored (Not compatible)
Cities of the North - Winterhold (Not compatible)
The Great City of Winterhold (Not compatible)
Less Desolate Winterhold (Compatible. Thank you keyah111!)
Winterhold Gate (Compatible. Once again, thank you keyah111!)

Vanilla Winterhold Explained...

It may have been a while since you’ve seen vanilla Winterhold so to review... There are 4 standing buildings in this hold capital. The Yarl’s house, his cousins house, the store and the Inn. Why are there so few buildings? There is no industry to draw people to Winterhold  other than the college. No agricultural is possible in a town that is always in the throws of winter. After the collapse, those that survived and rebuilt found that they couldn’t earn a living and so they left. That’s why there are empty houses that have collapsed roofs. Not because they are still half destroyed after 100 years but because the hastily rebuilt houses can't withstand the weight of the constant snow. Someone living in the house has to clear the snow buildup after a while. The money that does come in is from the college and the odd visit from the occasional mage or student.

The Yarl, as his father before him, blames the College for the collapse and (creative license) for forcing them to build a sub par residence in the old poor quarter of the town. The collapse destroyed most of the town, and only spared the most undesirable part. Almost all of that has since been repurposed. But because of the rushed construction job, they hadn’t been built in the historical stone with high peaked roofs (to prevent cave ins due to the weight of the snow.). This in turn is due to the lack of income in the town as well as the loss of the stonemason guild.

Of the nine holds in Skyrim, Winterhold is the smallest in almost every way. Whether by population, size of the town or having no other towns or villages within the hold. This is, by-the-way at least one reason, why the Yarl of Winterhold doesn’t get any respect from his fellow Yarls.

What was Added?

*** As of version 0.5, I have added an entrance to Winterhold on the main road. It was begun by the Stone Masons guild but never completed because the money ran out. It's only strategic importance is that it will funnel attackers coming up the road but will definitely have a flanking force that would quickly overcome it if it were garrisoned. It therefore remains empty. ***

This mod adds a wall with a gate for the mountain pass, that has recently lost the wooden gate thanks to a troll attack. The stone structure only recently had a wooden cavalcade added due to the civil war. It is accessed via a substantial guard tower behind Kraldar’s house, which is where the meager town guards reside.

The wall doesn’t go all the way around the town. Only the parts of the original wall that are NOT on flat ground survived. The "new and revitalized" portion of the town needed more room than the old wall allowed, so it was demolished and the stones repurposed into the new structures.

Thanks to the civil war there is another "gate" only recently constructed at the top of the trail to the shoreline. Keep in mind that these were built with minimal funds.

The sole tower that survived the collapse, was not part of the college but was part of the defensive wall. It is the only surviving structure, apart from the college, and was built in the same architectural style. The remaining wall fragment survived from the initial construction.

I have added 6 guards to the game to populate the added wall posts and account for the off-duty guards. It is to support 2 new posts and the original 2 guards. So there are a grand total of 8 guards. Only 4 will be at their stations at any given time. They work grueling 16 hour shift schedules but now there is a place to see the vanilla patrols sleeping and eating when not on patrol. I did not touch the vanilla guards in any way.

What was Changed?

A few trees and bushes were moved by (As of version 0.5) the entrance on the main road and the mountain pass entrance. A rock was moved by the trail to the shore and that's it. This allows for maximum compatibility with other mods. No resources were deleted and none of the actors have been changed however I may, in a future release, include an optional patch to modify the town drunk’s AI to go hunting once in a while.

The Navmesh had to be changed to account for the added structures. But only those directly affected by the added structures.

Added some Occlusion planes to assist my fellow low budget gamers.

Need HELP!
I have not tested the added guards in the Civil war faction change. While I feel comfortable that it will work, I have not tested it. The guard AI is adequate but could use improvement. Please help if you can.

Future To Do List
Add a few books about Winterhold for background filler in line with the above text to the guard tower.
Town drunk AI patch so that he makes the occasional hunting trip to pay for his room and board.