The municipality of Varhaug was established in 1894 when the old municipality of Hå was divided into two municipalities: Nærbø (population: 1801) and Varhaug (population: 1806). On 1 January 1964, there were many major municipal mergers in Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On that date the three neighboring municipalities of Varhaug, Nærbø, and Ogna were all merged to form the municipality of Hå. The village of Varhaug became the administrative centre for the new, larger municipality. Prior to the merger, Varhaug municipality had a population of 3,454.[4]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Varhaug farm (Old Norse: Varhaugr) since the first Varhaug Church was built there. The first element is likely the word vǫr which means "row of stones" (such as a stone jetty) or "pile of stones" (such as after a landslide). The last element is haugr which means "burial mound" or "cairn".[5]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Varhaug was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: