Explore the real-world places that appear in Bonesmith by Nicki Pau Preto. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include The House of Bone Citadel, The Qualifying Trial Grounds, The House of Gold Palace, The Border Wall, The Wall Garrison and 8 more.
Seat of the bonesmith noble house — Wren's home and training ground
The House of Bone Citadel is Wren's home and the center of bonesmith training in the Dominions. Here, Wren trains obsessively to earn her valkyr title — a ghost-fighting warrior designation that would secure her place in the noble house and finally earn the approval of her frequently absent father. The Citadel's halls hum with the grim commerce of severing ghosts from their earthly remains, and it is from here that Wren sets out to take her qualifying trial, only to have her ambitions undone by deliberate sabotage.
Edinburgh Castle, perched atop volcanic Castle Rock, has served as a fortress, royal residence, and military garrison for over a thousand years. Its earliest recorded history dates to the 12th century under King David I, though the site has been occupied since at least the Iron Age. It remains Scotland's most visited paid attraction.
Edinburgh Castle is one of Scotland's premier heritage sites, operated by Historic Environment Scotland. Visitors can see the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Stone of Destiny, and the One O'Clock Gun fired daily. It draws over two million visitors annually.
Visit: Edinburgh Castle (historic site)
Arena of valkyr testing — site of Wren's sabotage and disgrace
The Qualifying Trial Grounds are where Wren faces the most important test of her life — the combat and ghost-severing gauntlet that would earn her the title of valkyr. Someone sabotages her attempt, rigging the trial so that Wren fails catastrophically and publicly. This moment of humiliation is the inciting catastrophe of the novel: stripped of her chance at glory, Wren is banished from the House of Bone's inner circles and sent to serve on the Border Wall, the most thankless post in the Dominions.
Holyrood Park surrounds Arthur's Seat, an ancient volcano that has been used for public gatherings, military musters, and ceremonial events for centuries. The park was enclosed as a royal hunting ground by James V in the 16th century and has served Edinburgh's residents as open land ever since.
Holyrood Park is a free public park managed by Historic Environment Scotland. Visitors hike to the summit of Arthur's Seat for panoramic views of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. It is one of the most distinctive urban wild landscapes in Europe.
Visit: Holyrood Park (park)
Royal seat of the gold-working noble house — home of the kidnapped prince
The House of Gold Palace is the glittering seat of the Dominions' most powerful noble house and home to the prince whose kidnapping ignites the main quest of the novel. When news reaches the palace that the prince has been abducted and dragged beyond the Border Wall into the Breach, it sends shockwaves through the entire political order of the Dominions. Wren seizes on this crisis as her opportunity to redeem herself: by rescuing the prince, she hopes to prove her valkyr worth and reclaim her family's respect.
The Palace of Westminster has been the seat of English and British royal and political power since the 11th century, when Edward the Confessor built a palace on the site. The current Gothic Revival building, largely designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, was constructed after a fire destroyed most of the medieval structure in 1834.
The Palace of Westminster is home to the UK Parliament and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Guided tours are available to the public when Parliament is in recess, including access to the iconic chambers. The building and its Elizabeth Tower — housing Big Ben — remain among the most photographed landmarks in the world.
Visit: Palace of Westminster (historic site)
Last line of defense between the Dominions and the Breach
Wren is banished to the Border Wall after her disgraced failure at the qualifying trial — a posting considered a dead end for any would-be valkyr. The Wall is the last defended boundary separating the ordered lands of the Dominions from the haunted wasteland of the Breach beyond. It is here that Wren witnesses the crisis firsthand when the kidnapped prince's disappearance into the Breach becomes known, and she makes her fateful vow to cross beyond the Wall to retrieve him, setting the entire quest in motion.
Hadrian's Wall was built by Roman Emperor Hadrian beginning in 122 AD, stretching 73 miles from the Solway Firth in the west to the River Tyne in the east. It marked the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain and was manned by thousands of auxiliary soldiers. It is the largest Roman artifact in existence.
Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Britain's most important Roman monuments. The Hadrian's Wall Path is an 84-mile National Trail running its entire length. Key sites including Housesteads Fort and Vindolanda are open to visitors year-round.
Visit: Hadrian's Wall (historic site)
Frontier fort and base of operations for Wall defenders
The Wall Garrison is where Wren is assigned after her banishment, a grim and under-resourced posting for soldiers the Dominions consider expendable. The garrison is filled with misfits, the disgraced, and the overlooked — soldiers who failed elsewhere and ended up guarding the border against the unchecked dead of the Breach. It is within these walls that Wren first encounters Julian, the ironsmith from the exiled House of Iron, under circumstances that force their uneasy alliance. The garrison represents everything Wren is desperate to escape.
Housesteads Roman Fort, known in antiquity as Vercovicium, is the most complete example of a Roman fort in Britain. Built around 124 AD, it housed approximately 800 infantry soldiers and features barracks, a hospital, granaries, and one of the best-preserved Roman latrines in Europe. It was manned continuously for nearly three centuries.
Housesteads Fort is managed jointly by English Heritage and the National Trust. The site is open to visitors throughout the year and includes a museum displaying artifacts recovered from excavations. It sits along the Hadrian's Wall Path and offers sweeping views of the Northumberland landscape.
Visit: Housesteads Roman Fort (historic site)
The haunted wasteland beyond the Wall — domain of the unchecked dead
The Breach is the novel's most terrifying and central setting — a vast haunted wasteland where the dead roam violent and unchecked, because no bonesmths are present to sever them from their earthly remains. Caused by the actions of the House of Iron in the distant past, it is a place of perpetual supernatural danger. Wren and Julian must cross the Breach together to find the kidnapped prince, fighting off waves of vicious undead while their fragile alliance slowly transforms from mutual hostility into something more. The Breach is also where they uncover the dark conspiracy between the living and the dead.
The Scottish Borders and Southern Uplands represent some of Britain's most remote and historically contested terrain. For centuries after Roman withdrawal, the region known as the 'Dark Ages Debatable Land' between Scotland and England was ungoverned and lawless, subject to raids by reivers and claimed by neither kingdom.
Much of the Scottish Southern Uplands is protected wilderness managed by NatureScot. The Galloway Forest Park, Britain's largest forest park, offers some of the darkest skies in Europe and is a designated Dark Sky Park. The landscape remains hauntingly remote and sparsely populated.
Visit: Galloway Forest Park (park)
Remains of the exiled House of Iron's ancestral territory within the Breach
The Iron Ruins are the skeletal remnants of what was once the House of Iron's homeland before their exile. Julian guides Wren through these crumbling structures deep in the Breach, and here the reader — alongside Wren — begins to understand the ironsmith's true history, his complicated loyalty to his exiled house, and why he was involved in the prince's kidnapping. The ruins are also where major revelations about the dark alliance between the living and the dead begin to surface, recontextualizing everything both characters believed about each other's factions.
Stirling Castle and the associated Wallace Monument region mark the site of some of the most contested ground in Scottish history. The area saw the battles of Stirling Bridge (1297) and Bannockburn (1314), both turning-points in Scottish independence. Ruins of fortifications from multiple eras dot the landscape.
The area around Stirling is rich with ruined fortifications and monuments. The ruins of Cambuskenneth Abbey and the remains of various medieval structures are accessible to visitors. The National Wallace Monument, opened in 1869, towers above the River Forth and is open year-round.
Visit: National Wallace Monument (monument)
Sacred bonsmith sites where the dead are ritually released
The Ghost Severing Chapels are the formal ritual spaces where bonesmths practice their craft — the magical act of severing a ghost from its earthly bones so that the dead may pass on rather than linger as violent undead. For Wren, these chapels represent her professional identity and the weight of her calling. Her training in these spaces is described in vivid detail early in the novel, establishing the magic system that underpins everything that follows. The contrast between these ordered sanctuaries and the chaotic, uncontrolled dead of the Breach underscores the stakes of the entire quest.
Glasgow Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Mungo, is the only medieval cathedral on the Scottish mainland to have survived the Reformation essentially intact. Built beginning in the 12th century, its lower church contains the tomb of Saint Mungo himself. It has served as a place of religious ritual for nearly nine centuries.
Glasgow Cathedral is a free-to-visit historic monument managed by Historic Environment Scotland. The lower church and its forest of Romanesque columns is one of the most atmospheric medieval interiors in Scotland. It is open to visitors daily and remains an active place of worship.
Visit: Glasgow Cathedral (historic site)
Julian's working forge — heart of ironsmith craft and identity
Julian's forge is the physical embodiment of his identity as an ironsmith from the exiled House of Iron. When Wren encounters him, she sees not just an enemy but a craftsman whose skills mirror her own in unexpected ways — both of them shapers of metal and magic in service of purposes the other's house has always condemned. Scenes at and around the forge deepen our understanding of Julian's backstory, his motivations for participating in the kidnapping, and the pride he takes in ironsmith craft despite his house's fallen status. The forge becomes a crucible for the enemies-to-lovers tension at the novel's emotional core.
The village of Gretna and the surrounding Dumfries and Galloway region was historically associated with metalworking and borderland craftsmanship. Famous throughout Britain as a blacksmithing center, Gretna's 'anvil priests' conducted runaway marriages over the anvil for eloping English couples from 1754 onward.
Gretna Green's Famous Blacksmiths Shop is a heritage attraction and working venue celebrating the town's blacksmithing tradition. Visitors can view the original anvil used for marriage ceremonies and explore the history of the site through its museum. The venue is open year-round and welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Visit: Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop (historic site)
Deep in the Breach — where the prince is held captive
The Kidnappers' Stronghold is Wren and Julian's ultimate destination — the fortified location deep inside the Breach where the House of Gold prince is being held captive. Reaching it requires surviving wave after wave of undead, navigating the treacherous geography of the Breach, and trusting each other enough to fight in concert rather than at cross-purposes. When they finally arrive, the full complexity of the conspiracy is laid bare: the kidnapping is not what either of them thought, and the dark alliance between the living and the dead is more organized and more terrifying than Wren ever imagined.
Dumbarton Castle occupies a dramatic volcanic rock at the confluence of the Rivers Leven and Clyde and has been a fortified site for over 1,500 years. It served as a royal stronghold of the Kingdom of Strathclyde and later as a key Scottish crown fortress. Mary Queen of Scots was held here briefly before being sent to France.
Dumbarton Castle is managed by Historic Environment Scotland and is open to visitors for much of the year. The climb to the summit offers spectacular views over the Firth of Clyde and the surrounding landscape. The site preserves significant medieval and early modern fortifications.
Visit: Dumbarton Castle (historic site)
Trading hub where bonesmith services and relics are exchanged
The Bone Markets are the commercial heart of bonesmith society — the bustling, morally ambiguous spaces where bones, relics, and ghost-severing services change hands. Wren moves through these markets in the novel's early sections, and they establish the transactional, hierarchical nature of bonesmith culture and the social pressure Wren feels to prove her worth within it. The markets also hint at corruption within the House of Bone, foreshadowing the sabotage that ruins Wren's qualifying trial and the deeper conspiracy that emerges as the plot unfolds.
The Royal Mile in Edinburgh's Old Town has served as the city's primary commercial artery since medieval times, linking Edinburgh Castle at its upper end to Holyroodhouse at the lower. It was lined with markets, guild halls, and traders' booths for centuries and was the site of public executions and royal processions alike.
The Royal Mile remains Edinburgh's most visited street, lined with independent shops, whisky bars, tartan merchants, and tourist attractions. The Scotch Whisky Experience, Camera Obscura, and numerous closes and courtyards branching off the main street make it a rich destination for exploring Old Town history.
Visit: The Royal Mile (landmark)
First major battle with the Breach's violent dead beyond the Wall
This desolate stretch of the Breach is the site of Wren and Julian's first major confrontation with the violent undead of the wasteland — and, crucially, their first forced cooperation in combat. Though they despise each other and represent houses locked in historical enmity, survival demands coordination. Wren's bonesmith skills and Julian's ironsmith abilities prove to be unexpectedly complementary, and the fight here marks the moment their relationship begins its slow, grudging shift from hostility to reluctant partnership. The scene is viscerally described and sets the action template for the journey ahead.
The Northumberland moorlands north of Hadrian's Wall represented some of the most contested and dangerous terrain in post-Roman Britain. Tribes and later reiver clans carried out raids across this landscape for centuries, and the region's isolated farmsteads were frequently burned and abandoned. The area was long considered ungovernable by any central authority.
The Northumberland National Park encompasses 405 square miles of some of England's emptiest and most dramatic moorland. The park contains the largest stretch of dark sky in England and is a designated International Dark Sky Park. Walking routes across the open moorland are accessible to the public year-round.
Visit: Northumberland National Park (park)
Hidden encampment of the exiled House of Iron within the Breach
The House of Iron's exile settlement is the concealed community where ironsmith refugees have survived since their banishment from the Dominions. When Wren and Julian reach this place, Wren is forced to confront the humanity of the people she was raised to consider enemies — their families, their traditions, their grief over what was taken from them. Julian's loyalties and motivations become fully legible here, and Wren's own assumptions about the House of Iron's culpability for the Breach begin to crack. The settlement is a pivotal location for the novel's themes of prejudice, exile, and inherited enmity.
Glencoe is famous as the site of the 1692 Massacre of Glencoe, in which members of the MacDonald clan were killed by government soldiers billeted among them — a profound historical trauma involving betrayal, exile, and the destruction of a community. The surrounding glen has been inhabited since prehistoric times and carries deep cultural memory of dispossession.
Glencoe is managed by the National Trust for Scotland and the Glencoe Visitor Centre provides extensive historical and natural interpretation of the area. The glen is one of the most visited locations in the Scottish Highlands, renowned for dramatic scenery and walking routes. The visitor centre includes exhibitions on the 1692 massacre and the area's geology.
Visit: Glencoe Visitor Centre (museum)
More by Nicki Pau Preto: All Nicki Pau Preto books
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