VOL. I · NO. 8565THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026
The Daily Buffoon
FACT CHECK ✒ EDITORIAL ABSURDITY: 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

'Harry Potter' fans reportedly forced energy project's relocation to avoid Dobby's grave

Filed 1w ago · Via Snopes · The Buffoon Desk
THIS STORY IS SCORED
Merry Go Slower
Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Etchea Energy CEO Simon Ludlam says his company rerouted part of the Greenlink undersea power cable linking the UK and Ireland after receiving hundreds of calls from people objecting that the original path would go through the fictional grave of Dobby the house-elf, from the 'Harry Potter' films, at Freshwater West Beach in Wales. The rerouted path instead passes near genuine Bronze Age human remains.

Ludlam made the claims on a podcast called The Energy Revolution, saying he initially dismissed the complaints since Dobby is fictional, but ultimately worked with planners to avoid the site anyway. No primary evidence, such as call logs or emails, has surfaced to corroborate the volume or nature of the complaints, and Etchea has not responded to requests for such proof.

This isn't the first friction between the beach and Potter fandom: in 2022, a conservation group asked fans to stop leaving socks there, a nod to Dobby's freedom in the books, calling it environmentally damaging litter.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
A multimillion-pound interconnector project apparently bent its route around a made-up grave on the unverified word of hundreds of phone calls, which is either a heartwarming tribute to fandom or a case study in what passes for stakeholder engagement these days. Either way, the actual Bronze Age remains should feel free to be a little offended.
Source: Read the original at Snopes → Scored: Merry Go Slower · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0
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