Stung by the criticism of ‘Rattle and Hum’, U2 retreated to this Galway hideaway to write Achtung Baby. It can be yours for €895,000

Asking price: €895,000

Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes (01) 2376326, Sherry FitzGerald Mangan (095) 21888

​A sojourn into the wilds of Connemara once helped to save the career of Ireland’s most successful rock band.

In the late 1980s, having become well-used to unanimous praise, U2 were stunned by the critical opprobrium meted out by critics to Rattle and Hum, the band’s sixth album, released in 1988 and called “pretentious” and “excessive” by sectors of the press, who also didn’t spare the verbal rod for its accompanying film.

Towards the end of the band’s 1989 tour, Bono told the Dublin crowd that it was “the end of something for U2”, and that “we have to go away and dream it all up again”.

With regeneration in mind, Bono and The Edge, the creative heart of the band, retreated into splendid isolation at Gowla Lodge, an old fishing abode near the village of Cashel in Galway, and took a few trusted personnel and some equipment with them.

Here, they spent a fortnight licking their creative wounds and attempting to write new material. The fruits of this retreat would eventually form the basis of the critically acclaimed Achtung Baby, released in 1991.

Such was the creative benefit of that initial stay that the band decided to take the plunge properly, and collectively bought a west of Ireland home nearby through its holding company Not Us Ltd.

In the years ahead, Cannute House, a five-bedroom waterside getaway near Cashel, became a creative retreat, where they would hide out for extended periods in order to explore new material and musical ideas.

The band’s work at Cannute House may have also formed a basis for much of the material used on How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, released in 2004 — also the year they sold the house to the current owner.

Scraps of musical notation and lyrics were found by the purchaser upon moving in, perhaps evidence that some kind of song writing was indeed taking place during the band’s latter period here.

Cannute House is today back on the market for the first time since U2 sold it, asking €895,000 through Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes and Sherry FitzGerald Mangan.

U2 were not the only rock stars to use Connemara as inspiration in the 80s.

Sting had a house in Roundstone in the early part of the decade, where he lived with The Police bandmate Andy Summers and is said to have written many of the songs for the band’s third album Zenyatta Mondatta.

The Waterboys meanwhile chose the bucolic surrounds of Spiddal in which to record their 1988 smash album Fisherman’s Blues.

During U2’s years of ownership. which the band managed to keep secret from the press, members became a regular sight in and around the area, making friends locally and availing of the hospitality of Cashel and its surrounds.

Ask a local today how you can find Cannute House and they might look at you quizzically.

Ask them on the other hand how to find the ‘U2 house’ and they will have no problem showing you precisely how to get there.

It is not difficult to see what the attraction was for well-heeled musicians looking for creative serenity.

Like the Danish-born king, Cannute House faces the sea on the water’s edge at a small inlet on Cashel Bay.

The site benefits from a degree of shelter, producing an unusual lake-like calm on the water.

The views are such that although the interiors are currently covered in contemporary art, it would be all too easy — at a cursory glance — to mistake some of the picture windows for photo-realistic oil-on-canvas.

Despite it’s elegant facade, Cannute House is only about 40 years old, having been built on the footprint of an existing, much smaller property, plans for which it would likely be difficult to get approval for today.

And at almost 4,000 sq ft internally, it’s a very big house, with just over half an acre of grounds attached.

Cannute House is accessed by a winding waterside road, or by boat from the adjacent Canower Pier and is 24km from Clifden and 15km from the affluent resort of Roundstone.

The layout of the interior is something you might expect to find in a large suburban home, with a large hallway leading to a large family living room off to the left.

In common with most of the other rooms, this has a number of picture windows taking advantage of the views and a wood-burning stove.

Across from this is a formal dining room, with access to a patio surrounding the back of the house. Beside the dining room is a study with library shelving.

The modern kitchen is off the dining room and features marble countertops, an Aga and an island unit.

This room extends into a conservatory and the ground floor also has a guest toilet, a sauna and shower room, as well as a utility and a games room with a pool table.

Upstairs, there are five bedrooms. The return landing has a curved wall and the master bedroom comes with an en suite bathroom and the best views over Cashel Bay.

The other four bedrooms share an additional two bathrooms, one of which has a free-standing roll-top bath tub.

Securing holiday accommodation in Connemara these days is not for the faint-hearted.

Cannute House has itself been on the letting market, renting from €3,650 per week. Within reach is Ballynahinch Castle and the famous Kylemore Abbey.

As for the musical notes discovered after U2 had left the building, these are among the contents to be filed under ‘all that you cannot leave behind’.