Farmer walks Ireland for RNLI funds

A sheep farmer aiming to walk the entire coastline of Britain and Ireland has completed the 4,000km Irish leg of his journey.

Alex Ellis-Roswell arrived back in Belfast 13 months after starting his epic clockwise journey round the island.

The 23-year-old set off on his 9,000-mile (14,484km) charity challenge from his home town of Margate in Kent two years ago, and had already covered the south coast of England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and the south west of Scotland before boarding the ferry to Belfast in July 2015.

Just over halfway through his fundraising exploits for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), he will now sail back to Stranraer before traversing the rest of the Scottish coastline and the eastern side of England down to London.

Mr Ellis-Roswell, who sold all his possessions to fund the longest of long walks, hopes to arrive back in Margate some time in 2018.

“The generosity in Ireland has been amazing,” he said. “We’ve raised loads of money for the RNLI lifeboats. We’ve raised more than €27,000 so far.

“Ireland has been amazing and I am really thankful for the all the support I have received around Ireland.”

He felt compelled to undertake the challenge after experiencing a tough year in 2013 when his father died.

“After that I just tried to do something positive and clear my head and I just got the notion to start walking. I have always been around the coast, so the RNLI had always been a charity I’ve been aware of and I’ve been aware of how important the RNLI is,” he said.

Along the journey people have offered him food and places to stay but often he has slept out in the elements. The inclement conditions, combined with the huge number of miles he has clocked up, have also taken their toll on his feet.

“I am on my sixth pair of shoes now,” he said.

n More info: www.my donate.bt.com/fundraisers/longwalkround