Shroud Hearth Barrow is located in Iverstead, behind the farmhouses. This initially appears to be a small aboveground tomb, but there is actually a lot more to it. Generally speaking, you’re not terribly interested in the place anyways, unless you need one of three things: There are a fairly good number of soul gems sitting around in various places that you can grab for your own use. Additionally, if you want the Shout for calming animals, Kyne, then you want to head down here as well. Though long and requiring a bit of durability, the barrow isn’t hugely challenging so you might as well look into it while you’re here- it’s also good for some lockpicking experience if you feel you need that, with a Master locked door concealing an Expert locked chest- it’s pretty much a guaranteed two skill ranks in lockpicking from just those two locks.
As a side note, like many barrows, Shroud Hearth can provide you with a fair amount of Ancient Nord gear, including both sizes of sword, both sizes of axe, bows, and a considerable number of arrows.
Your initial foray into Shroud Hearth is short, but strangely thematic.
On entering the building, you find yourself in a sort of circular hall- towards the back is a table with enbalming tools and linen wraps, but across the hall from it is a door that is a bit tough to distinguish at night thanks to the darkness and the color of the iron it’s made of. On entering this door, you find yourself on a wooden spiral staircase leading down to a sort of short hall. At the end of that is a room- to your right is a ghost behind a portcullis, and on your left is a room with a table and some candles. In that room are two levers- two on the left and two on the right. The furthest left lever just closes both the portcullis to the room you’re in and, if it’s open, the portcullis the ghost was behind. The furthest right lever gets you shot with an arrow trap. Pulling both doorward levers, though, will get both portcullises open so that you can continue on.
Through that portcullis is an intersection- looking to the right you can see a chest, but be careful- there is a trap panel on the floor that triggers a set of spears in the wall which will injure you horribly (and your follower if you forget to tell them to stay) if you mistime your motions or don’t wait for them before heading to the chest. The other direction leads to a new intersection- if you go straight, you’ll quickly encounter the ghost- who isn’t a ghost at all! Wyndelius Gatharian is annoying and painful with his frost spell, but not well-armored enough to last dangerously long. Don’t give him any breathers or he’ll heal himself, though.
Off to the left is his study- you can snag his gear, a little meat, two Philter of the Phantom (useful for sneaking or pretending you’re a ghost if you like), and an alchemical crafting table. More importantly, there is also his journal. Reading it you can see that the poor guy went a bit mad- though don’t feel too bad, he was trying to rob the tomb out of greed until then. Kind of.... like you. Well, except that you don’t terrify the village half for the fun of it while you do it.
