{"id":588757,"date":"2026-08-10T09:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588757\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T09:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:20:12","slug":"uk-ireland-interconnector-costing-e500m-was-rerouted-to-avoid-grave-of-harry-potter-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588757\/","title":{"rendered":"UK-Ireland interconnector costing \u20ac500m was rerouted to avoid \u2018grave\u2019 of Harry Potter character"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u20ac500 MILLION UK-Ireland interconnector project had to be rerouted to avoid the \u201cgrave\u201d of a Harry Potter character.<\/p>\n

Greenlink is a subsea and underground electricity interconnector linking EirGrid\u2019s Great Island substation in Co Wexford to a UK National Grid substation in Pembrokeshire, Wales.<\/p>\n

Completed in February 2025, the route is around 160km submarine across the Irish Sea, with approximately 25km of route underground in Ireland and 5km underground in Wales.<\/p>\n

\"harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-dobby-the-house-elf-2002-c-warner-brotherscourtesy-everett-collection\"
\n Dobby the House Elf in the 2002 film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

The half a billion euro project however was rerouted because it was due to \u201cgo straight through Dobby\u2019s grave\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dobby is an elf in Harry Potter and in one of the films, his death was filmed at Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire.<\/p>\n

Harry Potter fans have erected a tribute to Dobby in the sand dunes of this beach.<\/p>\n

\"dobbys-grave-fresh-water-bay-pembroke-wales-beach-coast\"
\n Dobby’s grave at Freshwater West beach Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

Greenlink project manager Simon Ludlam told the Energy Revolution podcast that the cable was originally \u201cgoing to go straight through\u201d the tribute, which led to his company receiving \u201chundreds of calls\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach project has its own challenges,\u201d said Ludlam, \u201cbut some of them can be sort of mythical.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the issues arose after he filmed a segment with BBC Wales explaining in \u201cgreat, graphic detail\u201d how the project would make landfall.<\/p>\n

Ludlam filmed the segment on Freshwater West beach and explained that an underground cable would \u201cgo up into the dunes, and then right at the top of the dune, it exits and goes into the roads and off we go\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey aired it a couple of weeks later, and we got hundreds of calls,\u201d said Ludlam.<\/p>\n

Ludlam said he was too busy at the time to respond to the calls, but a colleague informed him that \u201cwe really have to respond to this\u201d.<\/p>\n

His colleague then explained that \u201capparently we\u2019re going to go straight through Dobby\u2019s grave\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Dobby, who\u2019s Dobby?\u2019 And they said, \u2018well, Dobby in Harry Potter. You pointed out very clearly where his grave was, and that the cable\u2019s going to go directly through it\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018well, he\u2019s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing\u2019s fictitious, what are you talking about?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cMy colleague said \u2018it\u2019s very, very serious\u2019, and it was serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"memorial-to-dobby-the-house-elf-on-freshwater-west-beach-in-pembrokeshire-wales-marking-an-iconic-scene-from-a-well-known-story\"
\n Memorial to Dobby the House Elf on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

As a result, Ludlam went back to the planners to discuss \u201cexactly how to reroute the cable so we wouldn\u2019t go anywhere close to Dobby\u2019s grave\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, we went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains,\u201d said Ludlam, \u201cbut we avoided Dobby\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people were very happy about that, and the project\u2019s now going, and Dobby\u2019s happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about Harry Potter nearly \u201csinking a multi-million-pound interconnector project,\u201d Ludlam replied that \u201cyou\u2019ve got to be flexible, agile, and thoughtful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, you know what, a 10-year-old girl, she\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cprojects always have firsts, and it\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve moved for a fictitious character\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u20ac500 MILLION UK-Ireland interconnector project had to be rerouted to avoid the \u201cgrave\u201d of a Harry Potter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[248663,27796,93,248664,248665,248666,14293,61,60,270,231001,248667,4381,9270],"class_list":["post-588757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-dobby","tag-eirgrid","tag-entertainment","tag-freshwater-west-beach","tag-great-island-substation","tag-greenlink","tag-harry-potter","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-pembrokeshire","tag-simon-ludlam","tag-wales","tag-wexford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}