HANKUKIN Scenes · Goblin (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God)

Deoksugung Stone Wall Road: The Loop That Breaks on Mondays

Deoksugung's stone wall road is free, 1.1 km around, and took fifty-nine years to reconnect. Most of it never closes — but the stretch that completes the loop runs inside the palace grounds, and on Mondays, and after the gates shut, the circle breaks again.

◐ Reported by reliable media Last checked 2026-08-31
A lane shaded by a full yellow and orange autumn canopy, running beside a stone wall, with people walking and sitting on benches along it
한국관광공사 (Korea Tourism Organization) · KOGL Type 3 (no modification)

Why this scene matters

For fifty-nine years, you could not walk all the way around Deoksugung. The stone wall road — 돌담길 (dol-dam-gil) — ran along the palace wall until it hit the British Embassy compound, which had closed the northern stretch since 1959. Seoul started knocking on the embassy’s door in 2014. A 100-metre section opened in August 2017, the final 70 metres on 7 December 2018, and for the first time in six decades the full 1,100-metre circle was walkable.

Here is the part the reopening headlines did not put first: the stretch that completes the circle runs between the palace’s north wall and the embassy, behind gates at both ends — the final 70 metres as a walkway inside the palace grounds. When those gates are shut — every Monday, and every evening for much of the year — the loop breaks exactly where it used to.

One road, four names

What visitors call “the Deoksugung stone wall road” is, in Seoul’s own description, four connected walks. Knowing the names helps, because their rules differ.

SegmentWhat it isOpen
Deoksugung-gilThe classic southern stretch, Daehanmun (dae-han-mun) to the Seoul Museum of ArtAlways. It is a public street — free, no gate
Jeongdong-gil (jeong-dong-gil)Continues from the museum crossing past the old legation quarterAlways. Also a public street
The gated walkwayThe bypass between the palace’s north wall and the British Embassy — 100 m opened in 2017, 70 m in 2018Tue–Sun. May–Oct 09:00–20:30, Nov–Apr 09:00–17:30
Gojong’s Path (go-jong-ui gil)A 120 m lane from the walkway to Jeongdong Park and the old Russian legationTue–Sun. Feb–Oct 09:00–18:00, Nov–Jan 09:00–17:30

Hours are the most recent published by Seoul’s city portal; sources and dates are at the end. The palace itself keeps separate hours — 09:00 to 21:00, last entry 20:00, closed Mondays — and which of Seoul’s five palaces is worth your one palace day is a separate question we have answered.

A stone wall topped with dark roof tiles curving away under an autumn canopy of yellow and orange leaves, with an empty lane beside it
The wall on the quiet stretch. The tiled top is what makes it read as a palace wall rather than a garden fence — keep it in frame. 한국관광공사 (Korea Tourism Organization) · KOGL Type 3 (no modification)
The Korean sentence this comes from
매주 월요일은 덕수궁 휴무로 개방하지 않습니다

It does not open on Mondays, when Deoksugung is closed.

Seoul Metropolitan Government, on the walkway 서울특별시 보도자료 (덕수궁 돌담길 개방) 8 January 2019

One more thing we noticed while checking this, and it is worth knowing before you argue with a locked gate. The city’s three official statements about the walkway’s closing time do not agree with each other. The 2018 opening notice said 09:00 to 18:00. The city portal’s 2022 guide says 20:30 in summer, 17:30 in winter. The palace those gates open into now runs to 21:00. Rules have clearly been revised at least once, so treat the sign posted at the gate as the final word — and if walking the complete loop matters to you, do it in daylight, on any day that is not Monday. The southern stretch, the famous one, never closes; only the shortcut through the palace does.

The wall Goblin walked

Deoksugung Doldamgil is one of the two Seoul locations — the other is Bukchon — that the press names first when the drama Goblin comes up. When the Korea Tourism Organization appointed Bollywood actress Hina Khan as an honorary ambassador in May 2025, the itinerary reported by Newsis was exactly that pairing: Bukchon Hanok Village and Deoksugung Doldamgil as Goblin filming locations, then Jumunjin for the BTS music video connection. If you have already made the trip to the Goblin breakwater in Gangneung, this is the city half of the same pilgrimage, reachable for a subway fare instead of a KTX ticket.

We have not matched individual scenes to individual metres of wall, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What the location offers is simpler: the wall, the canopy, and the same long walking frame the cameras liked. Stand on the southern stretch, shoot along the stones, and the picture explains itself.

The stone sign of the Seoul Museum of Art at night, with ginkgo trees lit yellow by street lamps and a brick church tower in the distance
The museum crossing at night, where Deoksugung-gil hands over to Jeongdong-gil. The road does not end at the wall — it forks. 한국관광공사 (Korea Tourism Organization) · KOGL Type 3 (no modification)

Autumn is the argument

Seoul’s English travel guide says the path is at its most beautiful in spring and autumn, and in 2022 the city put Deoksugung-gil on its official list of autumn-foliage streets. Our photographs of the road — supplied by the Korea Tourism Organization — are autumn photographs: a full yellow canopy over the benches, leaves on the lane. That is the version of this road people travel for.

The window is short. When the colour peaks in Seoul, and how briefly, is covered with Korea Forest Service data in our autumn foliage article — the short version is that November, not October, is when the city’s ginkgo turns, and the show does not wait for a second weekend. Outside autumn the road is still a pleasant, flat, free half-hour; in autumn it is the reason you got off at City Hall.

Two people walking past a high wall of large stone blocks at night, lit from below by a row of warm ground lights
After dark the wall works without the leaves. The ground lighting was installed when the loop was completed in 2018 — the southern stretch needs no ticket at any hour. 한국관광공사 (Korea Tourism Organization) · KOGL Type 3 (no modification)

What this article does not claim

The walkway hours in the table are the latest Seoul has published (2022) and have changed at least once before; we could not verify the current posted sign in person. We have not confirmed which Goblin scenes used which section of wall — the location claim is as reported by Newsis in Korea Tourism Organization coverage, not from the production. Deoksugung’s admission price is deliberately absent here; palace fees are covered in our five palaces guide. All hours were checked against the sources below on 2026-08-31.

How to get a similar photo

Where to stand
On the southern stretch between Daehanmun and the Seoul Museum of Art crossing, with the wall on one side and the tree canopy closing overhead. This is the frame every drama uses.
Which way to face
Point the camera along the wall, away from Sejong-daero, so the stones lead the eye and the traffic stays out of frame.
Framing
horizontal · 1x. The subject is the tunnel of wall and branches — a crop loses one or the other.
Best time
Late afternoon in autumn for the colour. After dark for the lit wall — ground-level lights run along the base of the stones.
Avoiding crowds
Weekday mornings are quietest. Autumn weekends are the opposite, and the benches fill by mid-afternoon.
Simple props
a coat in a solid colour — the wall and the leaves do the rest

This is a suggested photo angle for visitors, not the production's confirmed camera position.

The place

Name
Deoksugung Doldamgil (Deoksugung Stone Wall Road) · 덕수궁 돌담길
Address
24 Sejong-daero 19-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Status
Operating
Best season
Autumn. Seoul's own travel guide calls the path at its most beautiful in spring and autumn, and the city put it on its official list of autumn-foliage streets in 2022.
Getting there
City Hall Station, Subway Line 1 or 2. Exit 1 is 168 m from the start of the walkway; Exit 2 faces Daehanmun, Deoksugung's front gate, about two minutes away.
Transport
One standard subway fare from anywhere in central Seoul — the road itself costs nothing. Checked 2026-08-31.
Admission
The road is free and open year round (Seoul Tourism Organization, checked 2026-08-31). Deoksugung palace charges admission separately — see our five palaces guide.
Bring
a transit card, comfortable shoes — the full loop is about 1.1 km of stone and brick
Official page — check hours before you go→

Fit it into your day

  1. Lunch Jeongdong-gil
    The road forks at the Seoul Museum of Art. Jeongdong-gil continues past cafés and the old legation quarter — this is where the neighbourhood eats.
  2. Afternoon The loop, while the gates are open
    Walk the full circle in daylight. The stretch through the palace grounds and Gojong's Path both close in the late afternoon for much of the year — do them first, not last.
  3. Evening The lit wall
    Landscape lighting was installed along the stones when the loop was completed in 2018. The southern stretch is a public street, so the evening walk needs no ticket and no gate.

Korean culture & history nearby

Jeongdong was Seoul's legation quarter in the late nineteenth century, which is why a British embassy sits pressed against a Joseon palace wall in the first place. Gojong's Path, the 120-metre lane that opens off the walkway, leads to Jeongdong Park and the old Russian legation — the geography of the 1890s is still walkable here, one fence at a time.

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Sources & last checked