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Princep's Folly is the name given both to Gidleigh Tor and to the house that was built on it. The house was built in 1848 for Thomas Levett Princep (the name is often spelt Prinsep) on two and a half acres next to the tor that the rector of Gidleigh, the Rev. Arthur Whipham, leased to him for 99 years. The house was built into the rocks of the tor. Princep died suddenly before he lived there, and the house was taken down: its fittings and materials were sold at auction, and his widow gave up the lease in 1851.
What stands today is the lower part of a roofless octagonal tower, with a pointed-arch doorway and a small window, a few tens of metres west of the tor. William Crossing, writing in 1905, said the house had in fact been finished, despite local report, and thought the word folly an unfair name for it. Why Princep chose this site is not recorded.
The tower is on private land. Dartmoor Explorations places it west of the footpath that links Gidleigh and Teigncombe through the North Teign woods. Gidleigh Tor itself is described under its own listing.
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