Some way into the moor stands the town of Princetown, the site of Dartmoor Prison, which was originally built both by, and for, prisoners of war from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
Kot njihovi starodavni predniki, so uporabljali naraven granit za gradnjo svojih domov, znani kot "Longhouse" - od katerih so nekatere še danes naseljene, a so bile seveda prilagojene skozi stoletja.