Harry Potter fans prompt £430m power cable route change to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’

Harry Potter fans prompted the relocation of a £430m power cable between the UK and Ireland after raising concerns that its original route would pass through the fictional grave of Dobby, the house elf.

The Greenlink interconnector was initially planned to come ashore at Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, where Dobby is shown being buried in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Fans regularly visit the location and leave stones marked “Here Lies Dobby”, despite requests from the National Trust to avoid doing so because of the beach’s ecological sensitivity.

According to The Guardian, project manager Simon Ludlam revealed the route change during the Energy Revolution podcast.

The 125-mile (200km) cable, which connects the National Grid with County Wexford in Ireland, attracted hundreds of calls after its proposed route was shown during a BBC interview.

Ludlam said he initially did not understand the reaction.

“I said, ‘Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?’ I said, ‘He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?’”

He was told by a colleague, “No it’s very, very serious.”

The project team subsequently worked with planners to identify an alternative route. Ludlam said the revised cable path would avoid Dobby’s supposed grave.

“A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going [ahead] and Dobby’s happy.”

The revised route will instead pass close to genuine Bronze Age burial remains, including urns associated with human burials. Ludlam said the remains were also avoided.