Mayo man's barefoot walk across Europe officially recognised as a world record

A Mayo man who walked barefoot from Istanbul to Ireland has been officially recognised by Guinness World Records. Claremorris man Eamonn Keaveney was recently notified that his 6,805-kilometre barefoot walk had been recognised as an official world record. Mr Keaveney (34) began his latest challenge on March 4, 2025, walking through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, England, Wales and then across Ireland. He endured severe heat and winter conditions at times along the 369-day walk, which he completed on March 7 when arrived back to his native Claremorris after walking further than the distance of the continental United States. He raised over €21,000 for Friends of the Earth and youth mental health charity Jigsaw during the two-year walk. 'The walk itself was really tough, but gathering all of the evidence for Guinness World Records was an extra challenge on top of this,' he said in a video on his social media page. You must enable social media cookies to see this content. You can change your cookie settings under the link below. Change settings He has previously walked barefoot across Ireland and crossed Ireland from Malin Head to Mizen Head on a unicycle in a record time of five days, five hours and 23 minutes. Mr Keaveney set his first record in 2016 by walking 2,080.14 kilometres (1,292.54 miles) across Ireland, and almost doubled the previous record of 3,409.75 kilometres (2,118.72 mi) set by Pawel Durakiewicz (Poland) in 2024.