There are two folk
legends surrounding the origins of the rock formations that compose Gatbawi:
First Legend "A long time ago, a young man lived with his sick father and sold salt. Though he was poor, he was a kind man who would do anything to help his sick father. He worked as a farm hand for a rich house to save money to cure his father's illness. He did his job well but, in the end, his master didn't pay him. When he returned home after one month, he found his father’s body was already cold. He regretted that he had been foolish in not caring for his father for a month. The least he could do was to try to make him comfortable in the afterlife. Unfortunately, as he was moving his father’s body, he slipped and dropped the coffin into the sea. He felt awful about his father’s underwater burial. To make amends, he remained in that spot, wearing a bamboo hat until his death so that he too could not see the sky. Some time after his death, two rocks rose up at Gatbawi."
Second Legend "Another story of the rocks tells that when Buddha and a disciple traveled across the Yeongsan River, they took a rest in this place. They continued on their journey leaving behind their hats. It is said that their hats became the rocks making them to be known as the monk rocks." ==Natural Monument==