A man is walking over 5500km across the entire length of Europe - completely barefoot.

Eamonn Keaveney, 33, embarked on his epic journey from Istanbul to Ireland without any shoes back in March last year.

His travels have taken him through the Balkan mountains in Europe, the Blue Trail in northern Hungary, and the Danube cycle path in Austria.

The journey was inspired from an encounter with a Guinness World Records book during an unplanned visit to the local bookstore - over a decade ago.

Eamonn, a civil servant on a career break from Claremorris in Ireland, said "Many years ago I was in a bookstore sheltering from the rain when I saw the Guinness World Records book and decided to have a look. "

"I spotted the record for the longest barefoot journey, and I thought, 'I could beat that'. "

"And I did, walking 2000km barefoot around Ireland in 2016, which was the world record for a few years. "

"Ever since then, I wanted to go on an even bigger walk, and the logical next step after walking around a country is to walk across a continent! "

"And then a couple of years ago it struck me that if I walked from Istanbul to Ireland, I'd have walked the length of Europe."

The keen adventure is no stranger to such challenges: not only did he walk 2,000 kilometres barefoot around Ireland, setting a Guinness World Record in 2016, but two years later he climbed ten mountains in ten days without shoes.

He also crossed Ireland again 2023 - bit this time by unicycle - breaking the world record for the fastest unicycle journey across the country in just over five days.

Determined to set off on his next adventure, Eamonn set off from his home town on the 4 March last year - and he is now on his 317th day of walking.

He is fundraising for Jigsaw, a charity that provides free mental health support for young people, and environmental and climate campaigning organisation Friends of the Earth.

Eamonn says his journey has been "pretty good" so far - but not without its challenges - from painful feet, ever-changing weather and being bitten on the backside by a dog."

He said: "A fairly obvious difficulty has been sore feet, whether from rough terrain or thorns and the like hurting my feet. "

"I've also stubbed my toes and cut them open on numerous occasions. "

"The weather has been a struggle at times - the last couple of weeks in the UK have been very cold, and I've had to walk through frost and even some snow. "

"During the summer I had the opposite problem, getting caught in Hungary by a seemingly endless series of heatwaves. "

"And fairly early on, in Turkey, I was bitten on the backside by a dog, and I had to get a bunch of rabies vaccines."

However, he said the beautiful scenery has kept him going, with some of his favourite destinations covering the Balkan mountains in Europe and the Blue Trail in northern Hungary.

Eamonn said the kindness he has been shown from strangers has also been humbling.

He added: "In general I'm very lucky to have basically spent the entire last year outdoors! "

"I've also met lots of lovely people, in every county I've gone through, and had numerous offers of water, food, and even shoes! "

"It just goes to show that human kindness is everywhere and that there are always people who will take the opportunity to help others."

Eamonn is currently on the road in County Wexford in Ireland, heading for Davidstown.

You can donate to Eamonn's fundraiser here: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/BarefootAcrossEurope