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U2From a school noticeboard, 1976–2026

A drummer pins a note to a school noticeboard. Four answer it, make records behind a wall fans cover in paint, and send one guitar note echoing as far as the Mojave. Follow the echo, then go and stand where it landed.

Clontarf · Windmill Lane · Slane · Death Valley · Las Vegas

The four members of U2 in dark coats and hats against a desert ridge, in black and white
In the desert for The Joshua Tree, December 1986. Anton Corbijn, distributed by Island Records · Public domain

Mount Temple, Clontarf · September 1976

One note on a noticeboard.

Larry Mullen Jr pinned a musicians-wanted notice to the noticeboard at his school, Mount Temple: a drummer looking for people to form a band.

Drummer seeks musicians to form band.Mount Temple noticeboard
  1. ·
  2. ·
  3. ·
  4. ·

A note on the board. Nobody has answered yet.

Larry Mullen’s kitchenArtane, DublinPrivate · not mapped

On Saturday 25 September 1976 the people who answered the note met in Larry’s kitchen in Artane.

Pin all four names to fill the kitchen.

Sources
A wide tarmac school yard with low school buildings beyond it
The yard at Mount Temple Comprehensive, July 2007. David Malone (Dwmalone) · CC BY-SA 2.5

A working secondary school: see it from the road. The yard is for its students.

Windmill Lane, Dublin docklands · 1980–1987

Record, and the wall gets thicker.

Windmill Lane studios opened in 1978 on Windmill Lane itself. The building became famous for the graffiti that U2 fans from all over the world painted on its walls.

  1. Boy1980
  2. War1983
  3. The Joshua Tree1987

A bare studio wall in 1978. The red light is off.

U2 recorded Boy, War and The Joshua Tree there.

Press record three times to make the albums.

A public street in the rebuilt docklands. The old studio has gone.

Sources
A stone warehouse whose lower walls are covered from end to end in colourful graffiti
The original Windmill Lane studios, covered in fans’ writing, June 2008. Joho345 · Public domain
Shuttered doorways in a lane, every surface layered with spray paint and marker
The Windmill Lane wall in October 2009: every door and shutter painted over. William Murphy · CC BY-SA 2.0
Bono in a white shirt holding the microphone stand, lit green and white
Bono on the Boy tour, Ryerson Theatre, Toronto, 19 May 1981. P Douglas Middlemiss · CC BY-SA 4.0
Five young men round a radio studio desk with microphones and a turntable, in black and white
Larry Mullen Jr, The Edge, radio host Dave Fanning, Adam Clayton and Bono in a radio studio, 1982. Ian Wilson · CC BY-SA 4.0

The four the wall was painted for, between the first two records: on the road with Boy in Toronto in 1981, and round a radio studio desk in 1982.

A cream Art Deco building with green pilasters on a Dublin street corner
Windmill Lane Recording Studios in the old tramway power house on Ringsend Road, photographed by April 2016. Dublinprojekt · CC BY-SA 4.0

20 Ringsend Road, Dublin 4 · 0.8 km from Windmill Lane

Windmill Lane Recording Studios

Windmill Lane now works from an Art Deco building at 20 Ringsend Road; some call it the closest thing in Dublin to a U2 museum.

The studio says U2 began recording with it in the late 1970s and kept coming back through the 1980s and early 1990s. The guided tour takes about an hour: working studios, a hall of fame, memorabilia on the walls, and a desk where you mix a session with a virtual band.

Guided tours by booking: adults €26, students and over-65s €20, under-16s €18, a family of four €68.

Sources
Windmill Lane Recording Studios

Windmill Lane studio tour

Ringsend Road, Dublin 4 · Adults €26 · students and over-65s €20 · under-16s €18 · family of four €68

About an hour inside the working studios on Ringsend Road: the hall of fame, memorabilia on the walls and a desk where you mix a session with a virtual band.

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The Edge’s delay · one note, many repeats

Play it once. Hear it travel.

The song opens The Joshua Tree. Its guitar part runs through a digital delay set to a dotted eighth, the effect that inspired the whole song. Stamp the pedal at the noticeboard and the note comes back a dotted eighth later, then again, quieter each time. Every repeat lands on a real place, further from Mount Temple. Turn the feedback up to send it further.

Sources
Bono singing and The Edge playing guitar under blue stage light
The Edge, right, beside Bono on the Boy tour, Toronto, 19 May 1981. P Douglas Middlemiss · CC BY-SA 4.0
Feedback 4

Pedal off. Feedback set to 4: the note would reach Bewley’s, Grafton Street.

Mount Temple0 km

    Silence. Stamp the pedal.

    A grey castellated house on a lawn under a pale sky
    Slane Castle above its lawns, August 2007. Sitomon · CC BY-SA 2.0

    U2 recorded The Unforgettable Fire in the castle ballroom. On 16 August 1981 they had played the lawn below as one of Thin Lizzy’s support acts.

    Sources
    Rock Farm Slane

    Rock Farm Slane

    Slane, County Meath

    Shepherd huts, cabins, Lime House and the River House all year, with yurts and bell tents in spring and summer, on the Slane Castle estate, where U2 recorded The Unforgettable Fire in the ballroom.

    Check dates
    Slane Castle

    Slane Castle private tour

    Slane, County Meath · €150 for up to 6 · €12.50 each after that

    A one-hour guided tour of the castle, by appointment, booked at least a week ahead; up to 25 people. Public tours run on select dates.

    Ask for a date
    A sharp ridge of pale striped badlands in front of distant brown mountains
    Manly Beacon from Zabriskie Point, April 2026, with the Panamint Range behind. Christian David · CC BY-SA 4.0
    Front

    The Mojave · Before March 1987

    Turn the sleeve over.

    The front: Zabriskie Point, Death Valley.

    The black-and-white cover of The Joshua Tree was shot from Zabriskie Point, with Death Valley filling the frame.

    Manly Beacon sits at the right edge of the picture, looking toward the Amargosa Range and the Panamint Mountains. The pictures came from a three-day shoot around California’s Mojave Desert.

    A viewpoint in Death Valley National Park. Park entry is $30 a car for seven days, $15 on foot or bike.

    Sources
    A stadium stage seen over a crowd with raised hands, banners hanging from the scaffold
    U2 play Croke Park, Dublin, on the Joshua Tree tour, 27 June 1987. Damian McDonagh · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Home with the desert record: Croke Park, Dublin, June 1987, on the tour for the album whose sleeve you just turned over.

    A stadium crowd in the dark below a vast screen showing orange desert badlands
    Thirty years on: the view from Zabriskie Point fills the stage screen at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, May 2017. U2start · CC BY 2.0

    Friday 25 September 2026 · fifty years to the day

    Back to the same yard.

    Early afternoon. A podium in the school yard.

    A wide tarmac school yard with low school buildings beyond it
    The yard at Mount Temple Comprehensive, July 2007. David Malone (Dwmalone) · CC BY-SA 2.5

    25 September 2026, afternoon · Malahide Road, Clontarf, Dublin

    Mount Temple Comprehensive

    On 25 September 2026, fifty years on, the four came back and played on a podium in the school yard, early on a Friday afternoon, for students and staff.

    The Irish Times said it was the first time they had played there since 1978.

    Bono gave Larry credit for the note during the set. They played I Will Follow, Vertigo, Beautiful Day, Out of Control, One, a fingerpicked With or Without You and a new song, Silencio.

    A working secondary school: see it from the road. The yard is for its students.

    Sources

    Visit

    Where it is now

    12 places you can visit. Larry Mullen’s family kitchen in Artane is a private home, and the fallen Joshua tree has no marked site, so neither is on the map.

    Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

    • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working secondary school: see it from the road. The yard is for its students.

    • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public street in the rebuilt docklands. The old studio has gone.

    • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Guided tours by booking: adults €26, students and over-65s €20, under-16s €18, a family of four €68.

    • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Closed for renovation: see it from Wellington Quay.

    • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working café, open from early morning: go in for a coffee and find the Harry Clarke windows.

    • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open by appointment: private one-hour tours, and public tours on select dates.

    1. A wide tarmac school yard with low school buildings beyond it
      The yard at Mount Temple Comprehensive, July 2007. David Malone (Dwmalone) · CC BY-SA 2.5

      Malahide Road, Clontarf, Dublin

      Mount Temple Comprehensive

      Larry Mullen Jr pinned a musicians-wanted notice to the noticeboard at his school, Mount Temple: a drummer looking for people to form a band.

      A working secondary school: see it from the road. The yard is for its students.

      Sources
    2. A stone warehouse whose lower walls are covered from end to end in colourful graffiti
      The original Windmill Lane studios, covered in fans’ writing, June 2008. Joho345 · Public domain

      Windmill Lane, Dublin docklands

      Windmill Lane

      Windmill Lane studios opened in 1978 on Windmill Lane itself.

      A public street in the rebuilt docklands. The old studio has gone.

      Sources
    3. A cream Art Deco building with green pilasters on a Dublin street corner
      Windmill Lane Recording Studios in the old tramway power house on Ringsend Road, photographed by April 2016. Dublinprojekt · CC BY-SA 4.0

      20 Ringsend Road, Dublin 4

      Windmill Lane Recording Studios

      Windmill Lane now works from an Art Deco building at 20 Ringsend Road; some call it the closest thing in Dublin to a U2 museum.

      Guided tours by booking: adults €26, students and over-65s €20, under-16s €18, a family of four €68.

      Sources
    4. A stone hotel entrance with tall wooden doors and the hotel’s name carved above
      The Clarence Hotel on Wellington Quay, September 2013. Suzanne Mischyshyn · CC BY-SA 2.0

      6–8 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar

      The Clarence Hotel

      Bono and The Edge bought and restored the Clarence in the 1990s.

      Closed for renovation: see it from Wellington Quay.

      Sources
    5. A crowd gathered round a guitarist on a pedestrian street below a café front with red awnings
      A busker draws a crowd outside Bewley’s on Grafton Street, August 2024. The balcony is above the red awnings. Thoslee · CC BY-SA 4.0

      78–79 Grafton Street, Dublin 2

      Bewley’s, Grafton Street

      On the evening of 25 September 2026 the band played from the balcony of Bewley’s, and thousands of people filled Grafton Street below.

      A working café, open from early morning: go in for a coffee and find the Harry Clarke windows.

      Sources
    6. A grey castellated house on a lawn under a pale sky
      Slane Castle above its lawns, August 2007. Sitomon · CC BY-SA 2.0

      Slane, County Meath

      Slane Castle

      U2 recorded The Unforgettable Fire in the castle ballroom.

      Open by appointment: private one-hour tours, and public tours on select dates.

      Sources

    Stay

    Sleep on the Slane estate.

    Shepherd huts, cabins and summer yurts at Rock Farm, below the castle where The Unforgettable Fire was made.

    Rock Farm Slane

    Rock Farm Slane

    Slane, County Meath

    Shepherd huts, cabins, Lime House and the River House all year, with yurts and bell tents in spring and summer, on the Slane Castle estate, where U2 recorded The Unforgettable Fire in the ballroom.

    Check dates

    Go there

    A studio, a castle, the city.

    The Windmill Lane studio tour on Ringsend Road, a private tour of Slane Castle and Dublin music walks on the marketplace.

    Windmill Lane Recording Studios

    Windmill Lane studio tour

    Ringsend Road, Dublin 4 · Adults €26 · students and over-65s €20 · under-16s €18 · family of four €68

    About an hour inside the working studios on Ringsend Road: the hall of fame, memorabilia on the walls and a desk where you mix a session with a virtual band.

    Book a tour
    Slane Castle

    Slane Castle private tour

    Slane, County Meath · €150 for up to 6 · €12.50 each after that

    A one-hour guided tour of the castle, by appointment, booked at least a week ahead; up to 25 people. Public tours run on select dates.

    Ask for a date
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    What’s on

    A new record.

    No tour dates are announced. The new album is out in November.

    Checking current event dates…

    Take it home

    A book and three records.

    The band’s own history and three LPs tied to these places: Windmill Lane, the Slane ballroom and the desert.

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    U2 by U2

    U2 with Neil McCormick

    The four tell their own story, from the kitchen in Artane on.

    Find the book
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    Boy

    U2 · LP, Island ILPS 9646, 1980

    The first album, made at Windmill Lane.

    Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

    Find a copy
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    The Unforgettable Fire

    U2 · LP, Island U25, 1984

    Recorded in the ballroom at Slane Castle.

    Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

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    The Joshua Tree

    U2 · LP, Island U26, 1987

    Made at Windmill Lane; the front photographed at Zabriskie Point, the tree on the back.

    Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

    Find a copy

    Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

    The sources

    Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

    14 of 14 places · 20 of 20 Moments

    • Mount Temple Comprehensive

      Malahide Road, Clontarf, Dublin

      • Drummer seeks musicians

        Larry pins a notice to the Mount Temple noticeboard.

      • Back in the yard

        Fifty years on, the four play the Mount Temple yard.

    • Larry Mullen’s kitchen

      Artane, Dublin

      • An odd group in the kitchen

        The people who answered the note meet in Larry’s kitchen in Artane.

      • Feedback, The Hype, U2

        Three names before the one that stuck.

    • Windmill Lane

      Windmill Lane, Dublin docklands

      • Boy, War, The Joshua Tree

        Three albums made on Windmill Lane, behind walls fans cover in writing.

      • Only the walls stand

        The old studio is demolished; the graffiti walls are left standing.

    • Windmill Lane Recording Studios

      20 Ringsend Road, Dublin 4

      • Coming back to Windmill Lane

        U2 keep returning to the studio through the 1980s and early 1990s.

    • The Clarence Hotel

      6–8 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar

      • A hotel on the quay

        Bono and The Edge buy and restore the Clarence.

    • Bewley’s, Grafton Street

      78–79 Grafton Street, Dublin 2

      • The balcony

        The same evening, a set from the Bewley’s balcony over Grafton Street.

    • Slane Castle

      Slane, County Meath

      • Support act

        U2 play the Slane lawn below Thin Lizzy.

      • The ballroom

        The Unforgettable Fire is recorded in the castle ballroom.

      • Headliners

        Two nights at the top of the Slane bill.

    • Hansa, the Meistersaal

      Köthener Straße 38, Kreuzberg, Berlin

      • Berlin

        U2 start recording at Hansa Studios with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

      • One

        After weeks of hard sessions the band improvise the track that becomes One.

    • Zoologischer Garten station

      Hardenbergplatz, Charlottenburg, Berlin

      • Zoo Station

        Achtung Baby comes out; its first track is named for Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten station.

    • The Brandenburg Gate

      Pariser Platz, Mitte, Berlin

      • At the Gate

        Twenty years after the Wall fell, U2 play the Brandenburg Gate and open with One.

    • Seventh and Main

      7th Street and Main Street, downtown Los Angeles

      • Shut it down

        A video shoot on a liquor-store roof stops the traffic on Seventh and Main.

    • Zabriskie Point

      Death Valley National Park, California

      • The cover

        The band photographed at Zabriskie Point for the front of The Joshua Tree.

    • The Joshua tree

      Mojave Desert, about 20 miles west of Panamint Springs

      • The tree falls

        The lone tree from the back of the sleeve falls; the visitors keep coming.

    • Sphere

      255 Sands Avenue, Las Vegas

      • Forty nights

        U2:UV Achtung Baby Live, with Bram van den Berg on drums.

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