Coming Home To Virginia Park Lodge

Richard Corrigan built his name in London. But he never stopped talking about the countryside he grew up in. In 2013 he bought a piece of it back home: Virginia Park Lodge in Co Cavan^[1][2].

The house has a long history. It is an Irish country house and estate from 1750, once an 18th-century hunting estate, in Deerpark Forest on the shore of Lough Ramor^[3].

A Place That Mattered

The estate already meant something to him. The Corrigan Collection notes that it is where he married his wife, Maria^[4]. Buying it was personal as well as business.

He set about restoring the grounds and the farm. The aim was organic, local and sustainable produce, grown on the estate and cooked in its kitchen^[4].

Close To Self-Sufficient

The Caterer described an estate built around self-sufficiency. It recycles 90% of its waste on site^[2]. Twelve shepherd's huts were added for guests, and his sister Deirdre runs the weddings^[1][2].

Today the estate offers rooms, cottages, cabins and a nine-hole golf course, and Corrigan is its chef patron^[3]. Close by is the Deerpark Inn, a pub with rooms run by the same team^[3].

The farm also feeds the London restaurants. When he later opened Daffodil Mulligan in Shoreditch, the menu took its inspiration from the Virginia Park Lodge farm^[4].

For a chef who spent his career in cities, it was a real change of pace. The produce he once bought from others now grows in his own soil, a short walk from the kitchen door^[4].

Weddings, Walks And Golf

The estate also became a wedding venue, one of the busiest parts of the business. Guests can walk the trails along the lake shore, play the nine-hole course or simply sit by the water. In winter the house fills with Sunday lunches and afternoon teas^[2][3].

So the circle closed in Cavan. The Meath farm boy who left for Dutch hotels and London stars now has fields of his own, a lake view and a kitchen that cooks what the land gives^[1][3].