Battle of Skyhill The Battle of Scacafell or Skyhill took place about one mile ( 1 . 5 km ) west of Ramsey , Isle of Man in 1079 . This was during the third and final time that the Norse - Gael warrior Godred Crovan had invaded the island , finally taking it from the ruling king Fingal Godredson . At the time of the battle , the Isle of Man was part of a larger political entity called the Kingdom of the Sudreys , which consisted of Mann and the Hebrides . According to the " Chronicles of Mann " Godred Crovan ' s father was " Harald the Black of Ysland " about whom nothing more is known . Other sources suggest he may have been a brother or son of Ivar Haraldsson who died in 1054 . In 1070 King Godred Sitricson died and his throne was passed to Fingal , but he does not seem to have remained there long . In 1079 , Godred Crovan assembled a fleet and an army , probably of Norsemen from the Hebrides , and attacked the island . He was repulsed , but was soon back for a second attempt . Again he was repulsed , but later in the same year Godred Crovan came back a third time , and the chronicles are reasonably clear as to what happened next : " A third time he gathered a massive force and came by night to the harbour which is called Ramsey , and three hundred men he hid in a wood which was on the sloping brow of the mountain called Sky Hill . At dawn the Manxmen formed up in battle order and after a massive charge joined battle with Godred . When the battle was raging vehemently , the three hundred rose from their place of hiding at their rear and began to weaken the resistance of the Manxmen and compelled them to flee . Now when they saw themselves defeated without any place for them to escape to , for the tide had filled the riverbed at Ramsey and the enemy were pressing constantly from the other side , those that were left begged Godred with pitiful cries to spare them their lives . Moved with compassion and taking pity on their plight , since he had been reared among them for some time , he called off his army and forbade them to pursue them further . " It has been suggested that Fingal died at this battle , as he disappears from the record from this time , but the otherwise detailed account neglects to mention this . The result of the battle was that the Manx submitted to Godred ’ s rule and a sanctioned plundering of the island was carried out by his men . The island was then divided between the north , for rule by the Manx , and the South , for rule by those from the Hebrides whom Godred had brought with him to the battle . Despite Godred then moving on to a conquest of Dublin before returning to the Hebrides , he retained rule of the island until his death in 1095 . His descendants continued to rule the island for the next 74 years , until 1153 . Again , this is clear in the chronicales : “ Next day Godred gave his army the option of having the country divided amongst them if they preferred to remain and inhabit it , or of taking everything it contained worth having , and returning to their homes . The soldiers preferred plundering the whole island , and returning home enriched by its wealth . Godred then granted to the few islanders who had remained with him , the southern part of the island , and to the surviving Manxmnen the northern portion , on condition that none of them should ever presume to claim any of the land by hereditary right . ”