Our Story

  • History

    The Carrigart One 8 building has been in the family for multiple generations, each owned by a woman who ran a business within those 4 walls. From a cafe in the cellar which is now the prep kitchen, to a hair salon in the narrow corridor at the top where the main kitchen is and a shop where our guests now sit. This building is full of history. If you go back even further, horseshoes were made in the cellar at one point. Behind these businesses is where families were raised, including the current chef/owner Wendy and her 2 sisters, and her mother Meta before that.

  • Wendy's Story

    Wendy is the chef and owner of Carrigart One 8. Born in a family of entrepreneurs, it is in her blood to want to run her own business. Wendy trained as a chef in Killybegs back in the 80’s and has since travelled the world with her cooking. Starting in Switzerland and then going between London, the Channel Islands, Donegal, Bermuda and then settling in on the small island of Nevis in the Caribbean for 20 years before returning home in 2011.

  • Why "Carrigart One 8"?

    If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know all about the telephone exchange in Ireland and how it worked. Back in the day, you rang up the exchange and asked to be connected to a house number, so for this exact house it was “Carrigart - 1 - 8”. When Wendy moved away to Switzerland, she told the hotel owner she needed to ring home and let them know she got there safe. When the owner asked for the number, Wendy said “Carrigart-1-8”, needless to say it took a lot of research to figure out how to connect to Ireland with just that information.

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BEFORE

The Transformation

The last business in the building before Carrigart One 8 was opened was Harkin’s shop, and there was a number of years between one closing and the other opening. As you can imagine, between modernisation and the space not being used, there was a lot to do. You can see where we started and where we ended up, it took a lot of planning, creativity and dreaming to make this happen but it all came together and Carrigart One 8 was able to open on Thursday June 8th 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We were only able to open as a takeaway for our first summer and restrictions meant no indoor dining, and then when restrictions were able to lift Wendy broke her ankle and as the chef, this meant we remained as takeaway only until September 2021. We have been growing our customers ever since and thank both our local community and the visitors to the area for all of their support.

AFTER

Our Vision

Donegal is a great location for anyone who is interested in good food. We hope to continue to grow our business and clientele in Carrigart in a way that Carrigart One 8 will remain for years to come. Wendy would love to host cooking classes for locals and visitors, along with providing outdoor catering services and potentially extending the front face of the restaurant so we can seat more guests and reduce the number of tables that we have to say “I am so sorry but we are fully booked” to.

There have been so many exciting developments in the Mevagh parish and surrounding area, and we look forward to continuing to watch these developments and to be a part of the growing community.