There are more comfortable ways to return home. Eamonn Keaveney chose to make his way back to Ireland from Istanbul without shoes, sandals or even a spare pair tucked away in his bag. After walking 6,805.83 kilometres barefoot over 369 days, the 34-year-old Irishman reached his hometown of Claremorris, County Mayo, and reclaimed the world record for the longest barefoot journey on foot.
Behind that almost unimaginable figure lies a year of scorching roads, rain, cold, injuries and encounters. It was a deliberately unusual adventure, but above all a story of determination and solidarity in support of two causes: young people’s mental health and environmental protection.
6,805 barefoot kilometres between Istanbul and Ireland
A full year crossing Europe without shoes
Eamonn Keaveney left Istanbul on 4 March 2025. His route took him through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany and France, before reaching England, Wales and then Ireland.
He first made it to the far west of Kerry, reaching Dún Mór in early February 2026. Yet the adventure was not over. He still had around 500 kilometres to cover to get home to Claremorris. He officially arrived on 7 March 2026, 369 days after setting off.
The distance ultimately certified by Guinness World Records was exactly 6,805.83 kilometres. That is farther than the width of the continental United States and almost twice the previous record of 3,409.75 kilometres.
Why take on such an unreasonable walk?
A challenge born less from trauma than from a persistent urge
One might hope to find a spectacular revelation, a lost bet or a promise made on a stormy night behind this sort of feat. Eamonn Keaveney’s answer is much simpler: after completing an earlier long walk around Ireland, he wanted to set off again. Crossing a continent seemed like the natural next step.
The Mayo man does not present himself as some mystical hero searching for the meaning of life beneath the soles of his feet. Instead, he admits to a mix of curiosity, stubbornness and a taste for frankly improbable challenges. Speaking to RTÉ, he jokingly described himself as a combination of “mad and stubborn”, without claiming to offer a more complicated explanation.
That simplicity is precisely what gives the story its human dimension. The challenge was not born of a carefully crafted social-media narrative. It began with a personal desire strong enough to justify taking a year off work, carrying a backpack and enduring several thousand kilometres of discomfort.
Human soles put to the test
Asphalt, thorns, glass and extreme weather
Before setting off, Eamonn prepared his feet by walking and running barefoot regularly. The training toughened the soles of his feet, without making them invincible. Long days on asphalt sometimes wore his skin down until it bled. Gravel paths forced him to slow down, while thorns and small pieces of glass posed a constant threat.
A blackthorn spike caused an infection serious enough to stop him for a week. Just days before arriving, he also suffered a slight toe fracture. A dog bite early in his journey in north-western Turkey forced him to seek a rabies vaccination quickly.
The weather brought its own share of challenges. In Hungary, summer heat became so intense that he sometimes had to halt his progress. Several months later, he was facing the opposite problem: rain, snow and winter temperatures. As far as Germany, he often slept in a tent. Once the cold set in, he alternated between staying with locals, hospitality from strangers and whatever options were as affordable as possible.
Curiously, the weight of his backpack was sometimes more painful than his feet. His entire daily life had to fit on his shoulders: camping gear, clothes, food and the essentials for a journey lasting more than a year.
The kindness of strangers as the real thread running through the journey
A Turkish breakfast after a dog bite
Eamonn’s feet drew thousands of surprised looks, but very little hostility. Along the way, curiosity often led to conversation, then an open door, a kitchen or somewhere to sleep for the night. In rural areas unaccustomed to passing travellers, his appearance as a walker without shoes was unlikely to go unnoticed in any case.
An encounter in Süloğlu, Turkey, perfectly captures the spirit of the adventure. Eamonn was looking for a hospital after being bitten by a dog the previous day. Before he had even passed the town’s first house, a local invited him in for coffee and breakfast with his family. His granddaughter then drew him a map showing the way to the medical facility.
This small gesture in the face of such a vast distance may be one of the journey’s most telling memories. The kilometres set the record; the people he met gave it its story. On his return to Ireland, that generosity continued: according to Eamonn, he paid for just one night’s accommodation during the final part of his journey through the country.
A walk for mental health and the environment
More than €21,000 raised during the journey
The adventure also raised more than €21,000 for two charities. The first, Jigsaw, supports young people in Ireland with their mental health. The second, Friends of the Earth Ireland, works for climate justice and environmental protection.
This dual commitment ensures that the record is not simply an individual achievement. Every stage, interview and shared account of his adventure helped bring these causes to the fore. The walk was extravagant, but the needs it supported are very real.
The journey also demonstrated the power of a challenge that can be understood in a single sentence. No lengthy explanation was needed: a man walks from Istanbul to Ireland without shoes. The image piques interest, and curiosity then leads people towards the charities he supports.
Eamonn Keaveney is no stranger to unusual records
Irish peaks by unicycle
For Eamonn Keaveney, walking 6,805 kilometres barefoot is not a sudden eccentricity. In 2016, he had already walked 2,080.14 kilometres around Ireland without shoes, setting the world record in the discipline for the first time.
Two years later, he climbed ten Irish mountains in ten days, still barefoot. His record includes ascents of Croagh Patrick, the Mayo mountain famous for its pilgrimage, though its stones are not exactly renowned for their softness.
In 2023, he changed his mode of transport without exactly choosing the easy option. He completed the fastest crossing of Ireland by unicycle in the men’s category, in five days, five hours and twenty-three minutes. It was an achievement that confirmed his apparent preference for projects somewhere between the impressive and the absurd.
A world record, but above all a homecoming
Claremorris after 369 days
Eamonn had already surpassed the previous record in September 2025, at the border between Hungary and Austria. He could have stopped there. Instead, he continued westwards, crossed the English Channel, reached Kerry and then headed north to Mayo. His aim was not simply to walk farther than the previous record holder: he wanted to walk all the way home.
His arrival in Claremorris gives the journey a dimension that world rankings alone cannot measure. After a year spent moving from country to country, the finish line was neither a stadium nor a backdrop set up for the cameras. It was his hometown.
Guinness World Records has now officially recognised the feat. Eamonn acknowledges that he still needs time to recover after a year on the road. Asked about his next challenge, he is not ruling anything out. A reasonable answer from a man who apparently regards shoes as an optional accessory.
Main sources: Guinness World Records, RTÉ News, Jigsaw and Midwest Radio. The illustrative image does not depict Eamonn Keaveney.
