Thread 27 : To feel disappointed - and disgusted and vindicated now too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 26 IS FULL

Please see the OP of Thread 25 for all the links to The Observer's reporting and podcast series, our threads one to 24 and so on:
Thread 25 : To feel disappointed - and disgusted and vindicated now too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are always welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from some of Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou's excellent exposé items before posting. Chloe's podcast series for The Observer 'The Walkers' covers most things:
The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer
Another suggestion:
BBC Sounds - Secrets of the Salt Path - Available Episodes
To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea: please do not engage with drive-by scolders who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. For nearly a year we have done amazingly well together for 26 very interesting, very serious and very silly, threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

We are still here after 26,000 posts and fast approaching our one year anniversary together on 6th July 2026, 12 months on from the start of our first thread in response to Our Chloe's somewhat stunning initial exposé. Little did we know what else would come out. Our longevity comes as both a total surprise and a pleasure (mostly!). We've seen charabancers come and go, come back again, delurk and join us for the first time. All are welcome. Threads have both filled up in a day and moved at a more stately pace. Thank you everyone for sharing your time, thoughts, opinions, experience, questions, sleuthing (there's that word!), kindness (there's that other word!) and great humour with me and with each other. As ever, as we embark on our 27th thread riding the community charabanc - this time all holding our brollies and fans aloft for much-needed shade and breeze - keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider, (but not too much in the current heatwave).

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 26 IS FULL:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5506717-thread-26-to-feel-disappointed-and-disgusted-and-vindicated-now-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Oh my goodness - I rarely suffer from 'property envy', but that is beautiful.

It's not MW's castle. Just one in the same area

Martyn's chateau is called Chateau de la Barriere and he still lives there as far as I know.

Thanks, I wasn't sure and it had 'almost' the same name, I thought. But, I did see it needed fully restoring - although the plaster work and floor looked good! There seem to be so many French castles, in need of repair, and pigeonnier, of course?

Fwiw Martyn Walker's wife has an IG account which features their chateau fairly extensively. Perhaps not surprising, she doesn't follow Raynor Winn on IG, nor does Raynor follow her. One suspects no love is lost between the brothers and the whole TSP scandal has been a huge embarrassment for Martyn and his side of the family! One of their daughters appeared in the Sky documentary.

Thanks - I wasn't sure if he had finished the restoration. It is a long time now since they bought the adjoining land and then he bought the castle. It has made me realise - this may be the key to why Raynor and Moth have kept renting the estate. The Walker brothers were involved, as young men, in restoring other mansions - they probably dreamt of their own castles one day. As in this extract from Martyn's blog:

Its funny when at times like these, with no other person in sight or sound, the trickling of the water the only background to the screeing call of the buzzards, where your mind takes you. Transported maybe thirty years, I thought of the rushing dark waters of the river Trent, and my brother and I, leaning against an old wall that divided the garden of a manor house we were working on in Nottinghamshire from the small lane that led to it. We were lime rendering the old outside walls, and as we finished an elevation in a day so as to have no joints, it meant a long day and it was about seven o'clock and we needed a break before the last push. The wall was only chest high, so we sat, chewing the fat about what we were going to do with our lives and sipping form a coke bottle whilst flicking stones into the river, when we heard the noise of a lorry roaring closer before pulling up nearby. Surprised that a lorry would even drive down this small lane off the beaten track, we decided that we didn't want our break interrupted by a lost driver asking for directions, so kept our heads down, certain he would ask at the manor.

Just to be clear Martyn's chateau isn't in the same village as the pigeonnier (which he owns) and the tumbledown building next door (which Tim owns). Martyn bought the chateau in 2008, some 2 years after he bought the pigeonnier in the small village where Tim bought the adjacent plot of land.
Btw, there is no way you could possibly describe the tumbledown ruin that Tim bought as a "chateau". Unless of course your name was Sally Walker....

The pigeonnier is the building on the left in the photo attached and Tim's property is next door. They are so close together that you can't really sell one of the properties independently imo.