A multimillion-pound electricity link between the United Kingdom and Ireland has been diverted after Harry Potter fans raised concerns that its planned undersea route would pass through a beach memorial dedicated to Dobby the house-elf.
The Greenlink interconnector, a £430 million project (about $580 million), connects the UK’s National Grid to Ireland through a 125-mile cable running from County Wexford on Ireland’s south-east coast to Freshwater West, on a beach in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales. The scheme is designed to share excess renewable power, improve energy security and double the electricity transfer capacity between the two countries.
Planned route risked disturbing memorial stones
Freshwater West is where Dobby’s death was filmed for the Potter film franchise. On the beach, fans have left handwritten tributes on pebbles at the spot of a small memorial known as Dobby’s grave.
Project plans initially indicated that laying the cable along the proposed route would disturb the memorial area.
After a BBC News report on the operation prompted widespread attention, the project team said it received a large volume of calls.
CEO says project team changed course
Simon Ludlam, chief executive of project manager Etchea Energy, said the feedback led his team to revise the cable path. Speaking on the Energy Revolution podcast last week, he said the number of calls was in the hundreds and that the concern initially puzzled him.
Ludlam said he had been told there was a risk the cable would run directly through Dobby’s grave. He added that, even after being informed of the reference, he remained unclear at first before understanding the issue was taken seriously. His team then worked on rerouting the interconnector to avoid the memorial entirely.
He said many people welcomed the change, and joked that the project was now going ahead “with Dobby happy”.
CNN later contacted Greenlink Ireland and Etchea Energy for comment.
Tourism benefits, but new concerns remain
Local residents and visitors have described the memorial as drawing people to the beach. Jack Nicholas, 20, from Pembrokeshire, said the memorial brought tourists from around the world to one of the area’s most prominent beaches, and that rocks left at the site include items brought from places such as Italy, Australia and South Africa.
Pembrokeshire County Council estimates that tourism contributes about £604 million (around $815 million) to the local economy, with more than 6 million visitors supporting 23% of all employment in the county.
Sophie Pearce, a Welsh travel blogger who has visited locations including Egypt, India and New Zealand, said she had discovered a “magical” local attraction during the pandemic. She described painted rocks and messages left for Dobby and said the memorial is bittersweet for fans because it represents the character’s final moments in the films. Pearce said it would be a shame to destroy it.
However, Ludlam said the repositioning is not risk-free. He said the cable now comes “quite close” to Bronze Age remains.
Memorial backstory and earlier National Trust guidance
Dobby’s grave first appeared after the theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in November 2010, the film in which the character dies.
In 2022, the National Trust, which owns the land, agreed that the memorial could remain following a consultation. The charity also warned fans not to leave souvenirs. People had previously been in the habit of leaving a sock in tribute, reflecting the house-elf’s fictional condition of being bound to serve a wizarding family until the elf is granted freedom through an article of clothing being presented to a master.
Visitors were urged not to leave socks because Freshwater West is environmentally sensitive.
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12 August 2026
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