Dobby was laid to rest on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part One, and the spot has since become an unofficial shrine, with fans leaving painted pebbles reading “Here Lies Dobby” — despite requests from the National Trust, which manages the ecologically sensitive beach, not to leave tributes there.

The Greenlink interconnector, a 190km high-voltage cable linking the National Grid to County Wexford, was originally planned to make landfall at the beach. Project director Simon Ludlam discussed with planners exactly how to reroute the cable so it wouldn’t go close to Dobby’s grave. Fans had flooded the company with complaints after Ludlam mentioned the planned route in a BBC interview, and he initially had no idea who Dobby even was, later admitting he thought it was all “fictitious.”

Once alerted to how seriously fans took it, the team worked with planners to shift the route. In doing so, the cable passed close to genuine Bronze Age remains — including pottery linked to an ancient burial — but successfully steered clear of Dobby’s fictional one. The project went live in 2025 and now powers roughly 380,000 homes.