  Solar energetic particles (SEPs), accelerated during solar eruptions,
propagate in turbulent solar wind before being observed with in situ
instruments. In order to interpret their origin through comparison with
remote-sensing observations of the solar eruption, we thus must deconvolve the
transport effects due to the turbulent magnetic fields from the SEP
observations. Recent research suggests that the SEP propagation is guided by
the turbulent meandering of the magnetic fieldlines across the mean magnetic
field. However, the lengthening of the distance the SEPs travel, due to the
fieldline meandering, has so far not been included in SEP event analysis. This
omission can cause significant errors in estimation of the release times of
SEPs at the Sun. We investigate the distance travelled by the SEPs by
considering them to propagate along fieldlines that meander around closed
magnetic islands that are inherent in turbulent plasma. We introduce a
fieldline randow walk model which takes into account the physical scales
associated to the magnetic islands. Our method remedies the problem of the
diffusion equation resulting in unrealistically short pathlengths, and the
fractal dependence of the pathlength of random walk on the length of the
random-walk step. We find that the pathlength from the Sun to 1 au can be below
the nominal Parker spiral length for SEP events taking place at solar
longitudes 45E to 60W, whereas the western and behind-the-limb particles can
experience pathlengths longer than 2 au due to fieldline meandering.
