How Potterheads Worked Their Magic To Protect Dobby’s ‘Grave’ From A Rs 5,535 Crore Power Cable

Published 12 August 2026 · india

News world How Potterheads Worked Their Magic To Protect Dobby’s ‘Grave’ From A Rs 5,535 Crore Power Cable How Potterheads Worked Their Magic To Protect

News world How Potterheads Worked Their Magic To Protect Dobby’s ‘Grave’ From A Rs 5,535 Crore Power Cable How Potterheads Worked Their Magic To Protect Dobby’s ‘Grave’ From A Rs 5,535 Crore Power Cable Published By, Last Updated: August 12, 2026, 18:02 IST The cable was meant to pass through Dobby’s memorial site, until hundreds of Harry Potter fans called and got the route changed. Rapid Read Potter fans make pilgrimages to the site to lay pebbles with messages written to Dobby. (Image: X) A £430 million (Rs 5,535 crore) power link between the United Kingdom and Ireland had to change course after Harry Potter fans raised concerns that its planned route would cut through the beach memorial dedicated to Dobby the house-elf. The Greenlink interconnector runs between County Wexford in southeast Ireland and Freshwater West in southwest Wales, the beach where Dobby’s death scene was filmed for the Harry Potter movie franchise. The 125-mile undersea cable is designed to allow the two countries to share excess renewable energy, strengthen energy security and double electricity transfer capacity. But its original route posed an unusual problem: it would have disturbed the symbolic grave where Potter fans leave handwritten tributes to Dobby on pebbles. ‘Apparently, We’re Going To Go Straight Through Dobby’s Grave’ After a BBC News interview highlighted the project, concerned Harry Potter fans flooded the team with calls.

Simon Ludlam, the CEO of Etchea Energy, which is managing the project, later recalled the reaction on the Energy Revolution podcast. “We got hundreds of calls; I mean, hundreds of calls," he said. Ludlam initially struggled to understand why the issue had caused such concern. A colleague told him that “apparently, we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave." Ludlam recalled responding: “Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?" Even after the character was explained to him, he remained puzzled. “I said, ‘He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?’" Ludlam told the podcast. His colleague replied: “No, it’s very, very serious." The team then began looking at how the cable could be rerouted to avoid the memorial. The Cable Was Rerouted The route was eventually changed so that the cable would avoid Dobby’s grave entirely. “A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going (ahead) and Dobby’s happy," Ludlam joked. The memorial has become a popular destination for Harry Potter fans since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in November 2010, the film in which Dobby dies. Visitors have since left pebbles carrying messages and tributes at the Freshwater West site. Fans Travel From Around The World To Visit Jack Nicholas, a 20-year-old Pembrokeshire local who posts videos about the area online, told CNN that the memorial draws visitors from across the world.