A £430 million subsea power cable connecting Britain and Ireland has been rerouted mid-project after Harry Potter fans discovered its original path would cut straight through the makeshift grave of Dobby the house elf.
The change was revealed this week by Simon Ludlam, chief executive of advisory firm Etchea Energy and a director on the Greenlink interconnector project, who discussed it on the Energy Revolution podcast, as reported by CNN. The 125-mile Greenlink cable was designed to transmit renewable energy from County Wexford in Ireland to Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire, Wales, the coastal location famously used to film Dobby’s death in the first installment of 2010’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
Fans have informally treated the site as a memorial ever since the film’s release, leaving painted pebbles and handwritten notes at the location, despite the National Trust — which owns the land — asking visitors not to leave tributes because of the beach’s ecological sensitivity.
Ludlam had no idea the site carried any fan significance when he agreed to film a segment with BBC Wales walking through exactly where the cable would come ashore. According to The Journal, once that segment aired, his project was flooded with calls from concerned fans, and a colleague had to explain to him who Dobby even was before he grasped why people were upset.
From there, Ludlam went back to the project’s planning team to work out a new path that avoided the grave site entirely. Per Euronews, the adjustment satisfied both the fans and the project’s engineers, and construction continued without further disruption.
The rerouted path wasn’t entirely free of complications elsewhere. The New Daily reports that an archaeological survey along the new route turned up the rim of what’s believed to be an inverted Bronze Age collared urn, dating to roughly 1700–1500 BC and commonly associated with ancient burial sites. Unlike the fictional grave, that genuine archaeological find did not prompt any additional change to the cable’s route.
The Greenlink interconnector has been operational since February 2025 and now supplies power to roughly 380,000 homes, according to Joe.co.uk. No figure has been disclosed for the added cost of the diversion, and nothing suggests it delayed the project’s completion.
This isn’t the first time Dobby’s memorial has been safeguarded from outside pressure. Eastern Eye notes the National Trust agreed in 2022 to let the mock grave remain in place following a public consultation, while continuing to discourage visitors from leaving items like socks — a nod to the character’s storyline — citing ongoing concerns about the site’s environmental sensitivity.
