Somaemuldo: the lighthouse walk is closed, not tide-bound

Somaemuldo is a small island off Tongyeong, on the south coast, reached by ferry. Its fame is the islet next door: a white lighthouse on a rock, joined to Somaemuldo by a pebble path the sea uncovers twice a day.

That crossing has been closed since October 2025, and in summer 2026 the national park took out the stairs that led down to it.

Incheon Airport to Somaemuldo: a bus, a night, then a boat

Incheon Airport to Tongyeong is the long leg, and putting the two timetables together shows the airport-to-island day barely exists. The 07:30 bus reaches Tongyeong at 12:21, after the 10:50 boat. That leaves the 14:30. Trazy’s English page calls the ride hour-long in one line and an hour and 20 minutes in another, and we could not find the operator’s figure. Either way you get between 40 minutes and an hour on the island before the 16:30 back.

So treat Somaemuldo as two days: the bus to Tongyeong and a night there, then the 06:50 or 10:50 boat.

Check the bus in the T-money GO app before you land. The airport timetable names two operators, Gyeongwon Yeogaek (055-745-0123) and Daeseong Express.

Somaemuldo lighthouse: the walk is shut, and the tide is not why

The tide still uncovers the pebble crossing, which is called Yeolmokgae. The only route down to it from Somaemuldo was a deck staircase built in 2013. Yonhap put the stairs at about 58 m, part of about 100 m of stairs and decking that needed rebuilding.

The stairs rusted, and Gyeongnam Shinmun reported they were judged unusable in a safety inspection. The Hallyeo Haesang National Park east office, which manages the trail, closed them on 3 October 2025. In June 2026 a park official told Yonhap the old stairs would come out that month.

They did, a little later. On 5 August 2026 the park posted that part of the Somaemuldo lighthouse trail, the section going down to Yeolmokgae, had been removed and closed after an emergency safety inspection.

Since then the crossing has been left out of every reopening. Heavy rain closed the park’s trails this summer; the 20 August notice reopened Tongyeong’s except Daemaemuldo and the lighthouse islet section, and the 3 September notice again kept Yeolmokgae shut. The notice of 13 October 2026 still lists it as closed from 12:20 that day, with no end date.

Rebuilding is harder than it sounds. Gyeongnam Shinmun reported that most of the route runs over private land, so there is no room for a detour, and the owner opposes new stairs. The lighthouse islet itself is a national scenic site owned by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The ground you would cross to reach it belongs to someone else.

Gyeongnam Shinmun also reported visitors ignoring the signs and climbing down the cliff beside the closed stairs. Do not be one of them.

The lighthouse islet from Somaemuldo, May 2019. Photo: Mobius6, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Why the guides still say go

None of the guides we read mentions the closure. Trazy’s English page, undated, still quotes a 13,200 won fare and a gravel road that appears twice a day at low tide. The Korean national tourism site, VisitKorea, still says you can walk across when the water goes out.

Korean travel writing has not caught up either. A Seoul Shinmun feature on 21 July 2026, nine months into the closure, still walks the reader across.

This is how a well-known view becomes a trap. Somaemuldo gets about 50,000 visitors a year, by Yonhap’s figure, many of them for the lighthouse, and the pages that sent them were written when the crossing was open. The closure is reported, as far as we found, only in Korean: Yonhap, Gyeongnam Shinmun and the park’s own notice board.

Somaemuldo island: what is still open

The island is. The ferry still calls, and the park’s 20 August notice reopened Tongyeong’s trails except the lighthouse islet section and Daemaemuldo. From the island’s trail you get the view of the lighthouse islet in the photo above, looking across at it rather than standing on it.

Somaemuldo from the sea, May 2019. Photo: Mobius6, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The ferry at Somaemuldo. Photo: Mobius6, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The village on Somaemuldo. Photo: Mobius6, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The trail on Somaemuldo. Photo: Mobius6, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Nammae-bawi, the brother-and-sister rocks on Somaemuldo. Photo: Mobius6, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tongyeong ferry schedule and booking

Both rows come from an aggregator, not the operator, and it labels them the lowest adult fare with terminal fees extra. The times were the same on both days; the boat was not. It listed the Hansol No. 3 on 25 October and the Hansol No. 2 on 26 October, and the fare moved with it, so check the price for your own date. Its ride time of 21 or 23 minutes is not believable for this distance, so we have left it out.

Book on Ga-bogo sipeun seom (“islands I want to visit”), the Korea Shipping Association’s site at island.theksa.co.kr. When we read it, the booking form listed foreigner status and passport number as optional fields. Its address has an English option, but the form we saw was in Korean, and we have not completed a booking with a foreign passport. The aggregator says to be at the Tongyeong ferry terminal 30 minutes before sailing and to book ahead at weekends. That terminal is at the harbour, a separate place from the bus terminal where the airport bus stops.

Boats also run from Jeogu on Geoje, which Seoul Shinmun names as the other port. The aggregator had no Jeogu sailings registered when we checked on 25 October, so we have no times to give you.

Somaemuldo in a day, from Tongyeong

The 06:50 boat gives you a longer day, with the 12:25 or 16:30 home. There is no later boat to fall back on, so the 16:30 is the one to keep in mind all afternoon.

When not to go

• To walk across to the lighthouse. Closed since 3 October 2025, the stairs removed, and the park service’s 13 October 2026 notice still lists Yeolmokgae as closed.
• In rough weather. The aggregator warns that sailings can be cancelled for weather, and an island with three boats a day has little slack.
• Straight from the airport. The earliest bus reaches Tongyeong after the 10:50 boat, and the 14:30 leaves only a short stay on the island.

What we have not checked

• The ferry operator’s own timetable and fare. Both come from an aggregator, which gives the Tongyeong ferry terminal’s phone as 055-644-0364. Call before you go.
• Ride time. The aggregator’s figure is wrong; Trazy’s English page gives both an hour and an hour and 20 minutes. We have not found the operator’s figure.
• Bus terminal to ferry terminal. They are separate places in Tongyeong; we have no source for the distance or the bus between them, so allow extra time for the transfer.
• Jeogu sailings. None listed when we checked on 25 October.
• Whether new stairs are planned. The park removed the old section in summer 2026; we found nothing on a replacement or an agreement with the landowner.
• Booking with a foreign passport. We read the booking site’s pages but did not complete a booking.
• The Yeolmokgae reopening date. The park service notice gives none. Its Hallyeo east office is on 055-640-2400.

If any of this has changed, tell us on the contact page and we will correct it with the date. For the other end of the south coast, see Suncheon Bay, where the reeds and the garden share one ticket. For an island off Jeju where the ferry sets your boat home for you, see Gapado.