The Greenlink interconnector — a $580 million, 125-mile undersea cable linking Ireland and Britain — had its landfall point adjusted after public outcry that the planned surfacing would disturb an unofficial Dobby memorial at Freshwater West. Project planners moved the exit point away from the fan-built site, a decision they say also reflected beach and dune contours. A later archaeological survey found Bronze Age pottery consistent with a burial near the revised route, prompting ironic commentary. Greenlink began commercial operations in early 2025, transmitting up to 500 MW between the grids.
Fans Save Dobby's Memorial, Prompt $580M Undersea Cable Reroute — It Now Lies Beside a Bronze Age Burial
"Harry Potter" character Dobby, made by Mexican artisans.
When an undersea power project unintentionally threatened an unofficial Harry Potter memorial at Freshwater West beach, passionate fans mounted a public response that helped change where a $580 million interconnector comes ashore — only for the revised route to end up near a genuine ancient burial.
What happened
In 2018 Simon Ludlam was overseeing the Greenlink interconnector — a roughly $580 million (£430 million) high-voltage cable that links the electricity grids of Ireland and Britain across about 125 miles of the Irish Sea. While filming a short BBC Wales segment to show where the cable would come ashore at Freshwater West, Ludlam later learned the planned surfacing point coincided with an unofficial memorial to Dobby, the house-elf from the Harry Potter films.
"We got hundreds of calls, I mean, hundreds of calls," Ludlam told the Energy Revolution podcast, in an account later picked up by BBC News.
Fans had created a memorial at Freshwater West after the 2010 filming of a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. They leave painted stones — many carrying the epitaph shown in the film — and often socks, a nod to the garment that freed Dobby. The National Trust, which manages the ecologically sensitive site, has been concerned that paint flakes and discarded items could harm wildlife; after a 2022 public consultation it allowed the memorial to remain but asked visitors not to add more materials.
Route changes and the final decision
Ludlam raised the public concern with project planners, and Greenlink changed the exact landfall point so the cable would emerge away from the Dobby memorial. Greenlink CEO James O'Reilly later told The New York Times that the memorial, together with the natural contours of the beach and dunes, influenced the final landfall choice. As Ludlam put it: "The project is now going ahead, and Dobby's happy."
Irony: a real ancient grave
The move had an unexpected twist. An archaeological evaluation commissioned for Greenlink in 2019 and submitted to Pembrokeshire County Council uncovered the rim of an inverted pottery vessel consistent with a Bronze Age collared urn (roughly 1700–1500 BC), often associated with burials and possibly part of a round barrow. Ludlam acknowledged the cable route ended up "quite close to some real Bronze Age remains."
Commentators noted the irony: planners shifted the route to respect a fictional grave, and the cable wound up nearer a likely ancient one. Some critics argued the controversy was overblown because Greenlink had always planned to use horizontal directional drilling at landfall — boring underneath the beach and dunes rather than trenching across them — and that the disputed section was the precise point where the cable resurfaces rather than the drilled corridor itself.
Project outcome
Greenlink entered commercial operation in early 2025. The interconnector can transfer up to 500 megawatts in either direction between the two grids, roughly enough to power on the order of 380,000 homes. The Dobby memorial remains at Freshwater West, while the National Trust continues to ask visitors not to leave materials that could harm the local environment.
Sources: interviews cited by BBC News and The New York Times; Greenlink project documents and the 2019 archaeological evaluation filed with Pembrokeshire County Council.
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