Meet the Irishman who broke a world record in Wales

Gosia Buzzanca

At the beginning of March 2025, Eamonn Keaveney departed from Istanbul, Turkey, aiming to walk to his hometown in Claremorris, County Mayo, in Ireland.

He embarked on his journey hoping to set a new world record for the longest barefoot journey by walking over 6,000km without shoes or socks.

It was during his travels through Wales that he passed the current official Guinness World Record of 3,409.75km.

I spoke to Eamonn shortly after he arrived back in Ireland, having spent three weeks in Wales, and asked him about his mission and the impressions Wales had left on him.

When asked about his highlights, he said: “I thought the scenery was quite nice – the green hills are very reminiscent of Ireland – but the people I met definitely stood out the most.

“I found people to be very friendly and considerate; I think I had more people offer me shoes in Wales than anywhere else!

“And I had only been in Wales for about a day and a half when I was walking through St Mellons on my way to Cardiff and I was invited into The Poacher Arms for a Christmas pint and ended up having great craic with the folks inside – it was a lovely welcome to Wales!”

Knowing Eamonn travelled through Wales at the crossroads of the year, I anticipated what the answer might be to a question about the hardest parts of his journey.

He confirmed my suspicions: “The weather was pretty tough.

“There was a lot of frost and even some snow to walk on at one point. Thankfully it was just a thin layer but it was still very unpleasant to walk on.

“And some heavy rain too – I got absolutely drenched on the way to Carmarthen!”

As Eamonn has spent almost an entire year on the road, I wondered what his overall high and low points had been.

He said: “The best things were definitely the scenery and the people.

“I’ve gone through some lovely spots – the Balkan mountains in Bulgaria and the Carpathians in Romania, the Blue Trail in the north of Hungary, which took me through many woods and mountains as well as Lake Balaton.

“And the Danube cycle path in Austria was both gorgeous and flat!

“As for the people, I have had countless encounters, in every country, with people who wanted to help me by offering food or water, or a lift, or even a pair of shoes, and it’s become abundantly clear that kind people are everywhere.

“The worst part was definitely the weather. There was some snow in Bulgaria, and more recently too.

“But the real struggle was the summer heat – there was a couple of months of near-constant heatwaves, which made walking very sweaty and exhausting, and even forced me to stop for a couple of days every now and again because it was just too hot.

“And the heatwaves brought with them a never-ending series of thunderstorms!”

Eamonn updates his social media regularly throughout his travels. I pointed out that his Welsh pronunciation was excellent.

“Firstly, thanks! Honestly I just looked up the Welsh alphabet a few days before arriving and did my best to pronounce them correctly – I hope I didn’t butcher too many.

“I think it’s important to at least try to pronounce place names correctly.

“In Ireland, place names were Anglicised many years ago into essentially meaningless sounds, but in Irish they mean something, and I have a bit of a pet peeve about people claiming that the pronunciation ‘makes no sense’ because they’re looking at them through the lens of English!”

@barefootacrosseurope Day 310 of walking barefoot across Europe – a respite from the cold weather as I continue across southwest Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Daily distance: 19.74km Total distance: 5788.31km #barefoot #worldrecord #adventure #backpacking #wales ♬ original sound – BarefootAcrossEurope

I wondered what his regular day of walking looks like.

“It depends on the day – I might give myself a lie-in if I don’t have too far to go, and the days are very short now anyway.

“But I usually hit the road around 9, taking a few short breaks as I go and a longer one for lunch.

“This could be a meal in a pub, or bread and cheese by the side of the road!

“With the short days, it’s usually well after dark by the time I arrive. Then I shower, catch up on correspondence, make a video for social media, do some journalling and eventually conk out!”

And did he ever think of giving up?

“I never seriously thought about giving up but I did have moments – especially in the heat in Hungary – where I would briefly get overwhelmed by how much was still ahead of me.

“In those moments it helped to break it down into small chunks, and to focus on the day and the week ahead of me, and not worry right then about the following months!”

Eamonn decided to fundraise money for two charities of his choice throughout his challenge.

He explained: “The two charities are Jigsaw, which provides free mental health support to young people, and Friends of the Earth, which is an environmental campaigning organisation.

“I think there’s a nice synergy between the two given how climate doomerism is increasingly prevalent among young people!”

Slán go fóill, Eamonn!

Click here to support Eamonn’s fundraiser and follow the final stages of his journey on Instagram and TikTok.