Seongeup Folk Village

Seongeup was the administrative seat of eastern Jeju under Joseon, the county office from 1423 until 1914, and has been lived in for some six hundred years, and enough of it survived to be preserved as a whole village rather than a collection of buildings moved to a park. The houses are the island's own type: low and single storey, walls of black volcanic stone, thatch bound down under a net of straw rope because of the wind, and a screening gap between the outer wall and the door to break the gusts. Between the plots run dry basalt walls, laid without mortar and standing anyway. At the old government compound are the stone grandfather figures, the dolhareubang, and a pair of very old trees. People still live here.

Highlights

• The roped thatch - roofs netted down with straw rope against the island wind.
• The basalt walls - dry stone yard and field walls laid without mortar.
• The dolhareubang - the carved stone figures at the old government compound.
• The old trees - the zelkovas and hackberries kept at the village centre.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons on Jeju; summer is hot and humid and the winter wind on the plateau is serious. Mornings are quieter. Buses run regularly from both Jeju City and Seogwipo and take about forty minutes each way. Two hours is enough unless you join a guided walk.

Good to know

Free guided tours offered at the entrance frequently end in a sales pitch for local honey, tea or horse-bone products; you are under no obligation to buy, and saying so plainly is fine. It is a lived-in village, so many yards are private. Some houses are visibly staged for visitors. There is little shade and the wind is constant.

Nearby

The Seongsan Ilchulbong crater is to the east; Seogwipo is forty minutes south.

Key facts