大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - The romantic Highland retreat shared by legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel and 鈥榯he richest man in Europe鈥�

The romantic Highland retreat shared by legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel and 鈥榯he richest man in Europe鈥�

In remote spot in Sutherland, a mansion house is quietly decaying.

There is little on the crumbling exterior to suggest anything of the famous lives once lived inside, but the interior points to a decade-long love story involving an aristocratic playboy known as ‘the richest man in Europe’ and a trailblazing fashion designer.

This grand fishing lodge, Rosehall House, was one of many properties owned by Hugh Grosvenor, the married Duke of Westminster, and in the 1920s he was often joined here by his French lover, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel.

Inside the romantic hideaway of Coco Chanel and the Duke of Westminster

Architect Iain Cram shows Cathy Macdonald round the now dilapidated house.

Radical restyling

Coco was given free rein to redecorate the house, and did so in her typically understated and elegant minimalist style. In a radical departure from home décor of the era, she replaced bold, colourful prints with her hallmark earthy browns and soft beige tones, in keeping with the chic stylings of her office and home in Paris.

The lodge has been unoccupied for many years now and has fallen into a state of disrepair, but, as revealed in Chanel’s Scottish Love Affair, there are still reminders of Coco’s input visible to those lucky enough to gain access.

Most of the imported Parisian wallpaper has peeled away, but fragments remain ...as does another of Coco’s radical introductions: what is thought to have been the first bidet in the Highlands!

It is almost a century since Coco and the Duke enjoyed spending time in their Highland home. While Rosehall House is now a shadow of its former self, it remains the only property outside France and Switzerland with interior design by Coco herself.