Harry Potter fans have managed to influence the route of a £430 million power project between the UK and Ireland after raising concerns that an undersea cable could cut through the spot associated with Dobby, the beloved house-elf from the series. The Greenlink interconnector, which will connect County Wexford in Ireland to Freshwater West in Wales, was originally expected to come ashore close to the location where Dobby’s death scene was filmed.
The plan changed after fans complained about the possible impact on the makeshift memorial at the Welsh beach.
Project manager Simon Ludlam said his company received “hundreds of calls” after a BBC interview disclosed the proposed cable route. A colleague told him that the cable would go “straight through Dobby’s grave”.
Ludlam initially struggled to understand why fans were so concerned. He admitted that he did not know who Dobby was at first.
“He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious,” he recalled telling a colleague.
But the reaction from fans made the project team reconsider the plan. After being told the issue was “very, very serious”, planners looked for another route that would leave the memorial untouched.
Why Dobby’s ‘grave’ matters to Harry Potter fans
Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire has become a popular destination for Harry Potter followers because filmmakers used the beach for Dobby’s death scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 .
Although Dobby is a fictional character, the location has taken on a real-world significance for fans. Visitors have built a simple memorial using pebbles carrying messages to the house-elf, with fans travelling to the beach from different parts of the world.
The site has also become part of the local tourism story. Tourism advocates have pointed to the Harry Potter connection as one of the attractions drawing visitors to Pembrokeshire.
New cable route brings a different concern
Moving the cable away from Dobby’s memorial did not remove every challenge.
According to Ludlam, the revised route now runs “quite close” to genuine Bronze Age archaeological remains.
Planning documents cited by the BBC said archaeological trenches near the proposed cable route contained the rim of an inverted pottery vessel. Experts believe it was a Bronze Age collared urn dating from around 1700-1500 BC, a type commonly linked with human burial.
The project team nevertheless managed to keep the cable away from Dobby’s memorial.
“A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going (ahead) and Dobby’s happy,” he said.
Dobby memorial has faced trouble before
Fans have previously campaigned to preserve the tribute at Freshwater West. In 2022, the National Trust, which owns the land, decided after a consultation that the makeshift memorial could remain.
There was, however, a request for visitors to be careful about what they leave behind. Freshwater West is an environmentally sensitive beach, and fans were asked not to leave items such as socks as tributes.
The sock tradition comes directly from Dobby’s story. The character becomes free from magical servitude after receiving an item of clothing, which is why socks became a familiar symbol among fans paying tribute to him.
For now, the £430 million interconnector can move forward without running through the fictional elf’s memorial — while the real archaeological remains nearby remain part of the project’s planning considerations.
