$580M undersea cable rerouted to avoid the grave of Dobby the House Elf

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0

> The fans’ resistance to having Dobby’s “grave” desecrated seemingly prevented the undersea cable from going through the area. It was instead rerouted in an area that was close to some Bronze Age remains and urns, which, ironically, are associated with human burial.

OgsyedIE

The cost of planning the alternative route hasn't been published anywhere yet AFAIK, although it's non-trivial to estimate.

mhb

There is some skepticism about the veracity of this. Of course, be skeptical of the skepticism. https://bsky.app/profile/dsquareddigest.bsky.social/post/3ms...

scottLobster

If anyone doubts that popular media has at least somewhat taken the place of religion, here you go

dist-epoch

Reminds me of this classic article from Michael Lewis: > Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant. The first was the so-called "hidden people"-or, to put it more plainly, elves-in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe. Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it. It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman told me, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, "we couldn’t as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people." https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2009/4/wall-street-on...

gempir

> The National Trust, which owns the land, has previously warned pilgrims not to do so, as the area is ecologically sensitive, but it seems that people still do so. Ah okay, laying a few stones is ecologically sensitive, but if a billion dollar company wants to dig up the entire beach for a cable, that's not a problem.

wez_official

Dobby dies?! Spoilers!

tonyhart7

its undersea right, why would it matter ???? seeing the picture online seems that the grave would not be touched

mellosouls

This is a rehash of the Guardian article (submitted here yesterday with no traction), which should the the link: Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/10/harry-po...

dyauspitr

It is predicted that Binface will win by a landfill.

hollow-moe

I'm so tired of needing technical workarounds because of human stupidity. Exact same thing as the "age declaration" bullshit we see all over. Dig that trench, bury the cable, put the sand back, end of the story. Here in France we use public money to pay "experts" to ensure building wind turbines won't disturb the "natural energy highways" or some other bullshit before delivering the permit, they may even propose alternative locations for the turbine to disturb less the energies, bunch of lunatics.

youngtaff

If you every get the chance, go visit Freshwater West… it's a beautiful part of the world

ButlerianJihad

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Dobby's_grave Many fans have visited the beach to lay painted rocks, several crosses, and many socks in Dobby’s memorial. However, as the memorabilia has had a negative effect on the environment, the beach asks that visitors just interact with the site by taking photos.[4] Note: there is currently no indication of this controversy in the article. Anyone who holds an account on Fandom could check through the history and diffs, for any revision since 2019 that would indicate someone tried to add information about the undersea cable or the alleged row.

rglover

We are not serious people.

enos_feedler

Spoiler alert geesh

mrlonglong

This is false. The cable was already under ground where it gets to the grave.

thundercleeze

This is a nice thing.

mrlonglong

Truth. There was never any attempt to route it over that grave. https://backofmind.substack.com/p/chortle-on-a-chortle

nomel

Actual article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/10/harry-po... Podcast where this is all from, "Can We Connect the World's Electricity Grids? with Simon Ludlam" (google it for apple/spotify/etc links)