Piram-seowon sits on flat land among rice fields in Jangseong county, in South Jeolla province, its gates opening onto a courtyard with wooden pavilions and a shrine. It was founded in the late sixteenth century to honour Kim In-hu, a Neo-Confucian scholar from the region known for his integrity and his poetry, and it is one of the nine academies inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2019 as Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies. Unlike many seowon, which were closed by the government in the nineteenth century, Piram survived, and rituals are still held there.
The Jeolla region is the breadbasket of Korea, with vast rice fields and a reputation for the best food in the country. Gwangju, the regional capital, is less than an hour away, and it was the site of the 1980 uprising against military rule, now commemorated as a turning point in Korea's democratic history.
Nearby, Gochang has one of the largest concentrations of dolmens in the world, megalithic tombs from the first millennium BC, part of the UNESCO-listed Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites. Hundreds of them stand on a hillside, some huge, some small, in a landscape of fields and woods. Gochang also has a walled fortress, Gochang Eupseong, where women traditionally walk the walls with stones on their heads to ensure good health. Seonunsa, a temple in the mountains to the west, is famous for its camellias in spring.
The roads in this area are good, with gentle curves through rice fields, hills and forests, and little traffic outside the towns. Motorcycles are banned from expressways, so use national roads. Naejangsan national park, to the north, is famous for its autumn colours, which draw crowds in late October and early November. Yeonggwang, on the coast, is known for gulbi, salted and dried yellow croaker. Fuel and food are easy to find in Jangseong, Gochang and Gwangju.