Fans of the fictional wizard Harry Potter have successfully pressured developers of a multimillion-pound electricity project to alter its route after raising concerns that it could disturb a memorial dedicated to Dobby the House Elf.
The £430m Greenlink interconnector, which will connect the UK’s National Grid with Ireland, involves a 125-mile cable running between County Wexford and Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Freshwater West was used as the filming location for Dobby’s death scene in the Harry Potter films.
Fans have since created a memorial at the site, regularly visiting the beach to leave stones bearing messages for the fictional character.
Project manager Simon Ludlam, founder of Etchea Energy, said the cable was initially planned to pass directly through the area occupied by the tribute.
“Actually we went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains, but we avoided Dobby’s grave,” he said.
Ludlam explained that the situation became a major public relations problem after a BBC News interview about the project revealed the proposed route to Harry Potter fans.
“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.”
According to Ludlam, a colleague later informed him that the calls were from concerned fans who believed the project would destroy Dobby’s memorial.
“apparently we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave”.
Ludlam said he initially struggled to understand why fans were so concerned about what he regarded as a fictional character.
“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’.”
Following the backlash, Ludlam said he consulted planners and worked on changing the cable route to keep it away from the memorial.
He said the decision was welcomed by fans and would allow the project to proceed without disturbing the tribute.
“A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going [ahead] and Dobby’s happy.”
The revised route also passed close to archaeological remains identified in planning documents submitted to Pembrokeshire council.
Archaeological excavations near the underground cable route uncovered the rim of an inverted pottery vessel believed to be a Bronze Age collared urn dating to around 1700-1500BC.
Such vessels are typically associated with human burials.
The intervention by Harry Potter fans is not the first time the Dobby memorial has attracted attention.
In 2022, the National Trust agreed to allow the tribute to remain after consulting the public, although it warned visitors against leaving souvenirs because Freshwater West is environmentally sensitive.
Fans had particularly been urged not to leave socks at the mock grave, referencing the important role the item played in Dobby’s story.
