The Greenlink undersea power cable project, costing £430 million (about $577-580 million), was rerouted to avoid disturbing a memorial dedicated to Dobby the House Elf at Freshwater West beach, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The original cable route planned to pass directly through the fan-established site, provoking hundreds of calls from Harry Potter fans after the project became public early August 2026 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Greenlink consists of approximately 190 km (125 miles) of submarine and underground cable linking County Wexford in Ireland to Pembrokeshire in Wales. The cable can transmit up to 500 megawatts of electricity and became operational in February 2025 [1, 2, 3, 5, 6].
Project manager Simon Ludlam initially was unaware who Dobby was. He told reporters, "Dobby? Who’s Dobby? He is a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing’s fictitious, what are you talking about?" and described receiving "hundreds of calls... apparently going to go straight through Dobby’s grave… No it’s very, very serious." After discussions with planners, the cable route was altered to avoid the memorial, which Ludlam said pleased many, "and the project is now going [ahead] and Dobby’s happy" [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
The Dobby memorial has been an unofficial shrine since around 2010-2011, established by Harry Potter fans after the release of the Deathly Hallows films. Fans leave stones, socks, and messages at the site despite National Trust concerns over the environmental sensitivity of the beach, and requests not to leave items like socks [1, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Archaeological assessments near the revised cable route uncovered Bronze Age remains, including pottery urns dating from circa 1700 to 1500 BC, associated with human burial. "We went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains, but we avoided Dobby's grave," Ludlam said [2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Multiple news outlets published reports on August 10, 2026, confirming the cable rerouting was complete and the project was continuing without disturbing the memorial [1, 3, 4, 5, 6].
