There is some skepticism about the veracity of this. Of course, be skeptical of the skepticism.<p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/dsquareddigest.bsky.social/post/3msqenyjyqc2w" rel="nofollow">https://bsky.app/profile/dsquareddigest.bsky.social/post/3ms...</a>
What we can say for certain is that the sole source of this claim is the project director for Greenlink, Simon Ludlam, and he made the claim as an anecdote on a podcast this week. The project's public consultations were in 2019.<p>The anecdote starts at 16m55s: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-we-connect-the-worlds-electricity-grids-with/id1829678991?i=1000780000761" rel="nofollow">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-we-connect-the-wor...</a><p>Non-British people might also like to know that the UK news media is in what's called the <i>silly season</i>, where they run any old nonsense as news because Parliament is in recess, the MPs are on their holidays, and there's a dearth of serious announcements to cover: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season</a>
The whole story is absolute nonsense.
> 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.<p>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.
I have literally never heard anyone associated with the environmental movement say:<p>"This area is ecologically insensitive. I'm not too worried what you do here."<p>Until they define some map or scale of what "ecologically sensitive" means, I put zero weight on that statement. It's meaningless. They say it about everything because it is their job to do so.
> 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.
> instead rerouted in an area that was close to some Bronze Age remains and urns<p>To be fair, in the UK (and much of Europe) bronze age remains are everywhere. But there’s only 1 fictional Dobby grave.<p>Like farmers will regularly dig up a bronze age thingamabob while plowing a field. For example [1], [2]. There’s a story like this every couple of years.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/23/farmer-bronze-age-grave-find-ploughed-field/" rel="nofollow">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/23/farmer-bronze-ag...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/rhubodach-scotland-bronze-age-tomb" rel="nofollow">https://allthatsinteresting.com/rhubodach-scotland-bronze-ag...</a>
while I do agree with this point, I want to point out that this isn't quite a fair comparison.<p>every single entity has (normally) a single (real) burial site. Us grouping many unknowns in one group, and comparing to a single specific one is not quite fair...<p>there is only one burial site of many other fictional characters including some other well known and beloved ones.
TBF, human burial sites are a dime a dozen. There's relatively few locations associated with house elf remains.
This is a rehash of the Guardian article (submitted here yesterday with no traction), which should the the link:<p><i>Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’</i><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/10/harry-potter-fans-force-relocation-of-430m-undersea-cable-to-avoid-dobbys-grave" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/10/harry-po...</a>
If anyone doubts that popular media has at least somewhat taken the place of religion, here you go
Dobby dies?! Spoilers!
The cost of planning the alternative route hasn't been published anywhere yet AFAIK, although it's non-trivial to estimate.
Reminds me of this classic article from Michael Lewis:<p>> 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."<p><a href="https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2009/4/wall-street-on-the-tundra" rel="nofollow">https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2009/4/wall-street-on...</a>
its undersea right, why would it matter ????<p>seeing the picture online seems that the grave would not be touched
>According to The Guardian, project manager Simon Ludlam pointed out in a BBC interview that the cable would transition underwater at Freshwater West.<p>Nicely played, Simon. All those international trans-Atlantic fiber optics cables must really rustle JK Rowling's jimmies, yet she still continues to post ignorant bigoted abusive tweets over them.