Update: 24 April 2021
I've received an email from Tracey:
"... saw your pic, we were down there yesterday, after being told a few weeks earlier that it was the abandoned farm from the Spanish flu 1918-20.
The children hadn't been seen for a long time so someone went down and found the parents dead from the flu and the children still alive, we were told this story by a farmer from Cropton who we met on a walk near Skelton tower so aimed to search it out, wondered if you knew any history from it? You can see the remains of buildings the farm house and the abandoned piece of farm machinery you photographed."
Intriguing. The 1914 O.S. map (
Link ) doesn't show any farm there, so I assume the ruined walls are a sheep fold and the farm must have been down/up the dale.
If anyone knows of further info., it would be much appreciated.