Gueom-ri Stone Salt Field, an Aewol Shore Where Salt Was Made on Basalt

What Gueom-ri Stone Salt Field is

Gueom-ri Stone Salt Field is a natural rock shelf where salt was made on the basalt that lies spread along the shore at Gueom Port in Aewol-eup. The wide, cracked floor of hardened lava became the salt field itself.

Past the port at Gueom-ri, you come to this stone salt field. Salt is no longer made here, and the place remains as a site that keeps its old form.

What 'sogeumbille' means

The stone salt field is also called sogeumbille. Bille is a Jeju word for a broad flat rock, so sogeumbille means a salt field on rock — a stone salt field.

As the name says, it is a salt field made on a rock floor rather than on soil. It was a method possible only where basalt meeting the sea spreads out flat.

How the salt was made

Walls of clay were banked on the rock to divide it into sections, and seawater was let to pool inside them. What remained as the pooled seawater dried in the sun was salt.

On the wide basalt ground, soil was raised to form sections, and each section was filled with seawater and left to dry, yielding sun-dried salt. That is why the broad stone floor is still divided into many sections by reddish clay walls, looking at a glance like the shell of a turtle.

A salt field that was the village's livelihood

The salt field was where the residents of Gueom-ri made salt, and for a long time it was the ground of the villagers' livelihood. It was a place that could be called the base of their living.

Salt produced here was also bartered for farm goods from the mountain areas. Those called yeomjangi, the salt makers, are said to have passed the salt field down only to their eldest daughters.

Is salt still made here

Salt is no longer made. Salt was made until the 1950s, then the salt fields disappeared as cheap salt coming in from the mainland took over, and around that time the place could no longer serve as a salt field.

Later, in 2009, Jeju City partly restored the stone salt field. It is not used as a salt field now but remains a place to look around, open year-round.

Things you notice while looking around

Information boards here and there explain the origin of the stone salt field and how the salt was made. Reading the boards while looking at how the sections are divided and where the water pooled makes the shape of the floor look different.

When the salt field holds water, you can photograph the scenery reflected in it. On one side of the port there is also a dodaebul made of stone. A dodaebul is an old lighthouse that lit a flame at night to guide fishermen returning from fishing.

Where it is

The road-name address of Gueom-ri Stone Salt Field is 제주시 애월읍 애월해안로 708. Gueom Port is a port in Gueom-ri, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, and the rock shelf lying along the shore of the port is the stone salt field itself.

Following Aewol-haean-ro, you come to Gueom Port, where the stone salt field is. From the rotary at the entrance to Gamundong, take the coastal road toward Aewol Port and you reach Gueom Port.

A path you can walk on from here, the Eomjang Coastal Trail

From Gueom-ri to Gonae-ri there is a Haeannuri coastal trail called the Eomjang Coastal Trail. It is also part of Jeju Olle Route 16; the distance is 4.8 km, the time taken 90 minutes, and the difficulty moderate.

The course runs from Gueom Port past the stone salt field, Namttori Rest Area, Sineom Dodaebul (Sineom Port), Namdu Beacon Station and Darak Rest Area, reaching Gonae Port. Namdu Beacon Station on the way is an old military communication facility, where smoke by day and torch fire by night were raised to warn nearby villages when something urgent happened. There are not many trees along the path, so when walking in summer it is better to bring a hat for shade and water to drink.

Places you pass along the path

Starting from Gueom Port, the Eomjang Coastal Trail passes two rest areas, Namttori Rest Area and Darak Rest Area. Sineom Dodaebul, passed midway, is at Sineom Port, and the end of the path is Gonae Port in Gonae-ri.

It is also a path that passes the dodaebul of two ports in turn, Gueom Port and Sineom Port. If the light of a dodaebul faced the boats returning from the sea, the smoke and torch fire raised at Namdu Beacon Station were signals toward the nearby villages. One was a light turned toward the sea, the other toward the villages.

In the order of the course, the stone salt field lies at the head of the path. It is the spot you meet right after passing Gueom Port, the starting point. The stretch that follows is filled not with salt fields but with ports, rest areas and a beacon station.

From Gamundong toward Gueom Port

Mipojip Jeju Aewol is at 80 Gamundong-gil, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do. From the rotary at the entrance to Gamundong, taking the coastal road toward Aewol Port leads on toward Gueom Port and Gueom-ri Stone Salt Field.

If you are working out where to place a meal before or after looking around the stone salt field, you can see the menu and directions together. If you are curious about another path along the Aewol sea, you can also see From the Handam Coastal Walk to Gwakji Gwamul Beach.