If anyone had the "glitch" where meridia's beacon would not show up on the map, I may have a solution. It happened to me and I had resigned myself to never getting meridia's artifact, but then, during the dark brotherhood quest, a ship appeared in solitude harbor (i won't spoil why) that was not there before and sure enough, meridia's beacon was on that ship. So not really a glitch, just an extremely unfortunate spawning location. If like me, the show on map button was greyed out so you couldn't find the beacon, try doing the dark brotherhood to completion and see if it works, good luck!

Perhaps, or you just found it by coincinence there.

I found it at the top of a keep while doing something completely unrelated, that character hasn't joined or been invited to the DB yet.

It's random... in my game, it's sitting in a chest at a giant camp. I left it there for later... don't like quest items junking up my inventory.

I'm just saying it may not be a glitch. It couldn't show it on the map, because it didn't exist on the map until that ship came in. Once I found it I reloaded a recent save to see if the show on map option was still greyed out and it wasn't anymore, all was normal once that ship came in.

Thanks for the tip. I will try it later today and post what happened with me, lets see if thats is really the problem "marker not showing cause location doesnt exist yet".

Halted Steam Camp seems like a popular place for Meridia's Beacon, at least 3 of my characters have found the beacon there.

Thanks for the tip. That's why I read the forums, always like to be aware of "bug" averting situations.

On my previous character I found that beacon in a chest in a giant camp, like the other poster mentionned.

I found it before at lost tongue overlook. Once you take it, you immediately start the quest at the part where you return the beacon to Meridia's shrine.

When I got that quest, I naturally checked the map. It seemed to indicate Bthardamz as the place to go. Of course, Bthardamz requires a quest to enter it. I found that quest, cleared the joint, and there was no beacon. I don't recall where it turned up, but it was in the last chest of some random dungeon I did much later. Don't look for it, it'll find you.

Ok, I can confirm in my case there is no bug. Mark just spawned during the Dark Brotherhood mission: "The Cure for Madness". Not gonna spoil anyhing regarding to it. Just want to share the info. So, in my case that Location got marked on map accessing a place u couldnt get access to before, because of mission requirements.

Have luck.

It's a glitch that happens with several other quests a s well. Apparently in the Radiant quest lists, Bethesda developers incorrectly inserted several dungeons that are unlocked only during certain quests. Some people mentioned the Totems of Hircine (three objects relevant to the Companion quest lines) randomly appearing inside caves accessible by doing other quest lines. A very simple and stupid man-made error.