Couple film illicit tour of French design icon’s romantic retreat

A TIKTOK video of a couple breaking into Coco Chanel’s abandoned Scottish mansion has gone viral. Maia Eden Martus shared the footage on social media after she and her boyfriend Connor Cowan managed to get inside the decaying building near Lairg in Sutherland. The mansion is at the heart of the Rosehall Estate, used as a retreat by the fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. But the rundown building, 45 miles north of Inverness, has been empty for years. Maia, 23, and Connor, 28, decided to go inside and film their experience. The couple from Adross, Easter

BY KIRSTY FEERICK kirsty.feerick@reachplc.com

Ross, claim they heard voices inside – despite being alone.

The minute-long video, watched by 6000 people and resulting in hundreds of likes, shows antique furniture left behind including a red Chesterfield sofa.

They also spotted grand fireplaces, a bathtub, chaise longues and a pink wagon among the treasures left behind.

Maia told the Daily Record: “I saw videos of my friends going there and being there was quite scary.

“At first we thought there were other people there because we thought we heard voices, then we weren’t sure.

“The silence is peaceful until you hear the occasional creek of the floors. It’s sad how such a beautiful building has been left to let nature take over.”

In its heyday, the manor, built in 1873, had 22 rooms and was reportedly decorated by Chanel, famed for the little black dress, to mimic her Paris apartment.

She spent several summers there in the 1920s with Hugh Grosvenor, then the duke of Westminster, who was her lover between 1924 and 1930.

Winston Churchill stayed there in 1928 while he recovered from illness.

An undisclosed offer made by a foreign buyer has recently been accepted on the property, although it is understood the house and 700 acres of grounds will take many millions to restore.