A major £430 million undersea power cable connecting Great Britain and Ireland had to be rerouted after Harry Potter fans complained it would run through Dobby’s grave.
This was revealed during a recent interview with Simon Ludlam, the CEO of Etchea Energy, during an Energy Revolution podcast episode.
Etchea Energy was forced to reroute the Greenlink interconnector, a 190km-long undersea electricity cable, after hundreds of fans phoned in.
The link, from County Wexford in Ireland to Freshwater West beach in Wales, would have gone straight through the fan-made memorial for beloved Harry Potter character Dobby.
Dobby’s burial scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was filmed at the beach and has since become a pilgrimage spot for fans.
The project, subsequently diverted, was eventually finished in August 2024 and officially came online in April 2025.
‘Dobby? Who’s Dobby?’
After filming an interview about the project with BBC Wales during its planning stages in 2018, project manager Ludlam says he received “hundreds” of calls when the site’s location was revealed.
“Dobby? Who’s Dobby?” Ludlam asked when he was told people were calling for the project not to disturb Dobby’s grave.
Ludlam says he initially dismissed the protests, calling Dobby “a fictitious character in a fictitious book,” adding “the whole thing is fictitious.”
He was persuaded by a colleague that the matter was indeed “very, very serious.”
The interconnector was then diverted, instead passing by Bronze Age remains.
“A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going and Dobby’s happy.”
The ‘Harry Potter’ effect
Along with rallying to stop a £430 million cable, Harry Potter and fans of the series continue to shape the UK.
As one of the world’s most popular book and film franchises, the Harry Potter series is a major contributor to the UK’s tourism industry and draws millions of tourists every year – though many places are left scrambling to cope.
In the Scottish Highlands, a visitor centre near Glenfinnan Viaduct, made famous by the movies, had to undergo a £6 million revamp after Harry Potter fans swamped the area.
660,000 visitors were coming annually to a facility built in the 1960s with an expected capacity of 100,000.
The site was described as “overwhelmed.”
King’s Cross Station in London set up a permanent ‘Platform 9¾’ display away from the real platforms after tourists kept disrupting commuters.
In 2024, the station decided to discontinue its annual “Back to Hogwarts” event, after thousands of fans gathered in 2023 to hear the departure announcement of the ‘Hogwarts Express’ on the official Tannoy.
The station said that “celebrations have grown significantly in popularity,” and this was “challenging” for the station, already one of the busiest for passengers in the UK.
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