The Seoul City Wall: an 18-Kilometre Ring Around the Old Capital

When the Joseon dynasty moved its capital here in the 1390s, the city was laid out inside a ring of four mountains and a wall was built to connect them. It went up in 1396, largely by conscripted labour, in a construction season measured in weeks, and it enclosed the whole of what was then Seoul.

Four great gates and four smaller ones pierced it, of which Sungnyemun in the south and Heunginjimun in the east still stand. The wall was repaired and rebuilt repeatedly over five centuries — you can read the different eras in the stonework, from rough boulders to the neat rectangular blocks of the eighteenth century.

Much of it came down under Japanese rule and in the twentieth-century expansion of the city. What exists now is a mixture of original fabric, careful reconstruction and marked route where nothing survives, and the city has been steadily restoring and connecting it.

The result is a trail that circles the historic centre at ridge height, passing through parks, residential streets and forest, and looking down on the palaces from above.

The northern section climbs Bugaksan, the mountain directly behind Gyeongbokgung, and it passes close to the presidential compound. For decades it was closed to the public entirely, following an attempted raid on the presidential residence in 1968, and it reopened in stages.

Access is now open along the ridge, but the section retains controls: identification is checked at some access points, photography is restricted in places and signposted, and the route has fixed opening hours that vary by season.

Carry your passport or a copy, follow the signage about where cameras may be used, and treat the posted hours as firm — the guards are not negotiating.

In return you get the highest and most dramatic stretch of the wall, and a view down the whole axis of the old city: the palace directly below, the modern towers behind it, and Namsan closing the frame. It is the best hour on the circuit and the reason people walk the whole thing.

The route is marked throughout with signage and painted markers, and the city produces a wall-trail map that is available at the information centres. Naver Map follows the trail accurately.

Steps are the dominant feature. The mountain sections are largely stone staircases beside the wall, which is easier than scrambling but hard on the knees going down. Ordinary trainers are adequate on the urban stretches and marginal on the mountain ones.

There is very little shade on the granite sections and very little water on the ridge, so carry a bottle. Convenience stores sit at most of the road crossings where sections begin and end.

For a full circuit, start early and go clockwise from Dongdaemun. Eight to nine hours walking, with two long climbs and a lot of steps, and there are stamp points along the route for anyone who wants the completion certificate the city issues.