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> 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.
> 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.
The billion dollar company is monitored by ecologists and other professionals to make sure they build things according to environmental impact laws and follow their permits (e.g., after digging, restoring the top soil, etc).
Randos moving and stacking stones, especially in large numbers, may alter habits for (small) animals and cause erosion:
* https://www.ausableriver.org/blog/leaving-no-trace-rock-stac...
* https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/conservation...
Beaches are extremely dynamic environments and can heal in ways that other areas can't.
I have literally never heard anyone associated with the environmental movement say:
"This area is ecologically insensitive. I'm not too worried what you do here."
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.
Especially in the case of the UK which famously permits seabed trawling in the Marine "Protected" Areas.
https://oceandesk.org/destructive-bottom-trawling-occurs-in-...
We need heroes like this: https://planetwild.com/missions/21-underwater-sculptures-ita...
Maybe the company has at least made committments to restore it to the way it was after?
Yeah, isn't it crazy how that works?
There's some open space near my house with a fenced off area saying to stay on trail to protect the ecosystem, but of course oil and gas companies can drive their trucks through to setup fracking rigs.
Humanity collectively benefits by having electrical infrastructure so there can be more of us who can accomplish more things. I'm so sick of these effectively Original Sin arguments dressed up as pretending to care more about some fish or shore birds than about your fellow humans. I'm not sorry for existing, and I want lots of cheap power :)
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...
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.
The anecdote starts at 16m55s: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-we-connect-the-wor...
Non-British people might also like to know that the UK news media is in what's called the silly season, 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: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season
It would not surprise me if it came up at some point in the long and tedious process of public consultations and planning permissions that such projects need to go through (basically anyone can write in to comment/object on such things for any reason), and it stuck in his mind enough to mention it, even if it didn't actually weigh into the decision about where the cable went.
The whole story is absolute nonsense.
If you think this particular story about the dedication of some people to a fictional character from a book is nonsense, I've got bad news
> 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
To be fair, in the UK (and much of Europe) bronze age remains are everywhere. But there’s only 1 fictional Dobby grave.
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.
[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/23/farmer-bronze-ag...
[2] https://allthatsinteresting.com/rhubodach-scotland-bronze-ag...
Since it’s a fictional grave, you can build it anywhere you want, as many times as you want.
while I do agree with this point, I want to point out that this isn't quite a fair comparison.
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...
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.
None, to be precise.
If anyone doubts that popular media has at least somewhat taken the place of religion, here you go
Religion is, in fact, glorified fiction - so glorified that it's been declared a funda-mental right. Hilarious, I know!
it's a nice change that a big company suffers the result of an "organic hallucination" brought on by people associating the location with a fictional event; how do we make this happen to AI companies?
And made the cable reroute through a Bronze Age burial site too...
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...
If it's a legal requirement to have the government check for hidden people before you do building, why do they need to hide the fact they did it? I'm not a Christian but I'm pretty sure I'd still need to deconsecrate a church before knocking it down
I'm trying the imagine the scenario where the government official reports that elves have been found. On what evidence?
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...
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]
Truth. There was never any attempt to route it over that grave.
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)
Dobby dies?! Spoilers!
Spoiler alert geesh
The cost of planning the alternative route hasn't been published anywhere yet AFAIK, although it's non-trivial to estimate.
If you every get the chance, go visit Freshwater West… it's a beautiful part of the world
We are not serious people.
This is false.
The cable was already under ground where it gets to the grave.
Downvoted for speaking the truth, lovely.
I'll find the article and post it shortly.
Up yours.
It is predicted that Binface will win by a landfill.
its undersea right, why would it matter ????
seeing the picture online seems that the grave would not be touched
Here's how such cables get underground https://youtu.be/0HUFXuF8QDM?t=98
its undersea until it arrives to the land it connects to
This is a nice thing.
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.
What are you talking about ?