New era for Coco’s Highland love nest
A crumbling mansion with interiors designed by Coco Chanel will become a luxury hotel, reports Mike Merritt
IT is known as the only property outside Continental Europe with an interior by Coco Chanel and long thought to be the home of Scotland’s first bidet.
Now the 20-room Highland mansion that served as the love nest of the French designer and one of her richest admirers is in line for a £6 million facelift as a boutique hotel.
The crumbling B-listed Rosehall Estate in Sutherland, with a £2.5m price tag, has been in need of a buyer since 2015.
Its interiors were redesigned by Chanel in the 1920s when she was in a relationship with Hugh “Bendor” Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster.
Despite her leaving the home more than 85 years ago, a number of the rooms still bear her work, including fragments of wallpaper she designed.
Chanel had hand-blocked wallpaper shipped in from France, and oversaw local workmen as they put together simple fireplaces.
A team of specialists who act on behalf of the Chanel Archive previously viewed the property and offered their support in giving access to all their records.
A planning permission renewal application – for a hotel and five new-built guest lodges in the grounds – was lodged in 2017 on behalf of Ghulum Choudry of the Rosehall Estate.
Now, after four years on the open market, an undisclosed offer made by a family from abroad has been accepted, said Malik Afsar, of Remax Central estate agency.
The buyer bought Rosehall because of planning permission that will allow it to be converted into a hotel, he added.
Built in 1873 after a fire gutted the original building, Rosehall was owned by the duke, one of the world’s richest men, during the 1920s. He spent summers at the property with Chanel, his lover between 1923 and 1929. She decorated each room in floral and pinstriped wall coverings that were inspired by her flat in Paris.
In 1923, Chanel, the daughter of a laundrywoman who become a global fashion icon with her hats, styles and perfumes while enticing a string of wealthy lovers, was introduced to the Duke of Westminster in Monte Carlo at the age of 42.
His income from vast property holdings was said to be a guinea a minute.
Their affair was to last until 1930, but when asked why she never married him, Chanel famously replied: “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Mademoiselle Chanel.”
But the pair also lived together in Scotland, counting Dundee MP Winston Churchill, who stayed there to recuperate from an illness in 1928, among their guests at Rosehall.
Churchill, writing to his wife, Clementine, emphasised his admiration for the French fashion designer.
He wrote: “Coco is here in place of Violet [Nelson, the duke’s second wife]. She fishes from morn till night, and in two months has killed 50 salmon.
She is very agreeable – really a great and strong being fit to rule a man or an Empire.”
As a style icon, Chanel pioneered everything from suntans to trousers for
She fishes from morn till night... really a great and strong being fit to rule a man or an Empire
women, while her Chanel No.5 fragrance first appeared in 1921.
Rosehall comes with five separate buildings and is the only home outside of Switzerland and France with interiors by Chanel. It also has what is thought to be one of the first bidets fitted in a Scottish home.
Under plans approved in February 2014, the Georgian mansion, near Lairg, would be fully restored and turned into an upmarket hotel, carrying many of the design features created by Chanel.
Having been neglected for more than 60 years, work on the project had been expected to begin early in 2015.
The property had been on the market for almost two years with an initial price tag of £3m.