The few buildings include houses built originally for quarry workers and the Dartmoor Inn, which sells Merrivale Ale.

The eastern end of the rows is passed by a section of the Great Western Reave, running roughly NW-SE.

[1] More recent archaeology includes the remains of tin mining and smelting along the River Walkham and its side streams.

The hamlet, quarry and Staple Tors to the north are on the granite, while Cox Tor immediately to the west is on the metamorphic aureole, with altered Carboniferous sedimentary rocks of the Culm Measures lower down and calc-silicate hornfels and intrusive dolerite at the summit.

[3] The Merrivale Granite is coarse grained, porphyritic, with crystals that are dark grey, white/cream and orange in colour.

It is important in understanding how the landscape of South West England and the granite tors of Devon and Cornwall were formed.