Harry Potter fans forced the rerouting of a £430 million undersea cable project between Britain and Ireland after discovering its original path would have disturbed a shrine dedicated to Dobby the House Elf on a Welsh beach.
The £430m (€502m) Greenlink interconnector, a high-voltage cable designed to supply energy from Britain to Ireland, encountered an unexpected hurdle when entertainment enthusiasts realized where the digging would take place. The 125-mile (200km) or 190km-Greenlink cable was supposed to be laid between County Wexford in Ireland and Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Freshwater West Beach and the Legacy of Dobby
The controversy centers on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Rowling’s wildly successful series on the boy wizard. Ever since the films concluded, visitors have made pilgrimages to the site, leaving painted stones, pebbles with messages written to Dobby, and items of clothing in tribute to the fictional character at his unofficial resting place.
While the National Trust, Europe’s largest conservation charity, agreed in 2022 that the shrine could remain in place following a consultation, it urged fans and visitors not to leave socks behind for environmental reasons, noting that the beach is an ecologically sensitive site. That delicate balance between fan devotion and environmental preservation was upended when energy planners mapped out the landfall for the new power link to carry solar and wind power to the Republic of Ireland from the UK.
From a BBC Broadcast to Hundreds of Furious Phone Calls
The crisis began with a media appearance. Simon Ludlam, chief executive of advisory firm Etchea Energy, who served as director of the project, spoke with the British public service broadcaster BBC about where the underground cable would go underground at Freshwater West. When the interview aired a couple of weeks later, the company’s offices were instantly inundated.
Photo: collider.com
“We did the shot, we finished, I went back to London, and they then aired it a couple of weeks later. And we got hundreds of calls, I mean, hundreds of calls.”
Simon Ludlam, project manager and chief executive of Etchea Energy
Ludlam admitted he initially had no idea what callers were talking about, turning the opposition into what he described as a public relations nightmare after word of the disruption emerged via a podcast. When a colleague informed him of the nature of the calls, his first reaction was utter disbelief.
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?’ [The colleague] said ‘no it’s very, very serious.’
Simon Ludlam, project manager and chief executive of Etchea Energy
Rerouting the £430 Million Interconnector
Faced with mounting public pressure after the interview on The Energy Revolution podcast released on August 5 (or Wednesday), project leaders took action. Ludlam explained that he then discussed with planners exactly how to reroute the cable so they wouldn’t go anywhere close to Dobby’s grave, ensuring the project is now going ahead and Dobby is happy.
The cable diversion is not the first time Dobby’s grave has been saved, following the National Trust’s 2022 agreement allowing it to remain. Interestingly, the alternative path brought construction teams close to genuine historical artifacts mentioned in Pembrokeshire council planning documents. According to those documents, archaeological trenches dug near the route of the underground cable contained the rim of an inverted pottery vessel whose fabric suggests a Bronze Age collared urn circa 1700–1500 BC, typically associated with human burials. With the interconnector rerouted away from the memorial, the site remains secure for the hundreds of fans who make a pilgrimage to the site each year.
