Oeam in Asan, a lived-in Joseon village you can reach by subway

Oeam Village (외암마을) sits at the foot of Seolhwasan in Asan, near the far end of Seoul's Line 1. It is a Joseon-era clan village where families still live behind the stone walls, and that is the reason to make the two-hour ride.

A clan village, still lived in

The Yean Lee clan settled here in the sixteenth century, and the village shares its name with the pen name of Lee Gan, an eighteenth-century Neo-Confucian scholar from the family. The tiled-roof houses of the old scholar-official households stand among thatched ones. The thatch is still renewed in the cold months, the way it has been for generations.

The walls are the walk

More than five kilometres of dry-stone walls line the lanes, built from fieldstone with no mortar. Most are low enough to see a persimmon tree over and high enough to show where one household ends and the next begins. A stream off the mountain is channelled through several gardens before it leaves the village, so you can hear running water in the lanes.

Visiting as a guest

Enter over the small bridge by the water mill and pay the modest admission at the booth. Many houses are private homes, so signs mark which yards are open, and the rest are seen from the lane. A few houses take overnight guests, and staying the night is the only way to walk the walls after the day visitors leave.

외암마을의 돌담길은 지금도 이웃과 이웃을 잇는 생활의 길이다.

From Onyangoncheon Station, a local bus or a short taxi ride covers the last stretch. Before you leave, ask about yeonyeopju (연엽주), a lotus-leaf rice wine the Lee family has brewed here for generations.