For sale: Coco Chanel’s Scots ‘love nest’ mansion

Rear view of dilapidated country mansion once the secret love nest of Earl of Grosvenor and Coco Chanel. Picture: SWNS

A DILAPIDATED Scots mansion which was once the secret love nest of the Earl of Grosvenor and Coco Chanel has been put up for sale for £3 million.

The Rosehall Estate, near Inverness, boasts a 22-room main house along with five separate homes dotted across the 700 acres of land.

It was built in 1820, but its most colourful period of history was during the 1920s after it was bought by the Duke of Westminster, Hugh ‘Bendor’ Grosvenor.

The super-wealthy landowner would spend his summers at the property with Coco Chanel, who was his lover between 1923 and 1929.

Chanel would love to fish on the Scottish Highland estate’s river, catching more than 50 salmon, according to Winston Churchill, who stayed with her at the property.

She redesigned the whole of the property’s interior, making the property unique in the UK. Despite leaving the home 85-years ago, a number of the rooms still bear her work.

The French designer painstakingly decorated each room in subtle, elegant hues, much of it based on the look of her Parisian apartment.

She had hand-blocked wallpaper shipped in from France, and oversaw local workmen as they put together simple fireplaces.

Churchill, a friend of the Duke of Westminster, stayed at the mansion in 1928 as he recuperated following an illness.

In letter to his wife, Clementine, the future PM described both Chanel and the main house as “very agreeable”.

He wrote: “The air is most exhilarating, keen and yet caressing. Coco got three fish yesterday.

“This morning it is raining, which is good for fishing. We all play Bezique so that the time is not burdensome.

“Coco is here in place of Violet. 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.

“Bennie very well and, I think, extremely happy to be mated with an equal - her ability balancing his power. We are the only three on the river, and have all the plums.”

But the years and the harsh weather hasn’t been kind to the estate, near Inverness, and it has hardly been lived in for 60 years.

It now requires millions spent on a full restoration and, when ready, it could be returned to a stunning family home or converted into a luxury hotel.

There is a loch on the estate with a boat house.

The estate has been put on the market with London-based RE/MAX for £3 million - making it one of the most expensive properties for sale in Scotland.